The House of Li () was the ruling house of the Western Liang dynasty and the Tang dynasty of China. Family information The Li family originated in the Longxi Commandery and had Han ethnic origins. They were also known as the Longxi Li lineage (隴西李氏), which included the famous Tang poet Li Bai. The Li family were members of the northwest military aristocracy prevalent during the Sui dynasty. According to the official records of Tang dynasty, the Li family was paternally descended from the famous Daoist sage Laozi (whose personal name was Li Dan or Li Er), as well as the Han dynasty General Li Guang, and Li Gao, the ethnic Han ruler of Western Liang dynasty. During the late Northern and Southern dynasties period, the Li family intermarried with Xianbei royalty when Li Bing (the ethnically Han father of the first Tang emperor) married the part-Xianbei Duchess Dugu (the daughter of prominent Xianbei general Dugu Xin). Marriages between elite Han men and Xianbei princesses were common in this period, as the Northern Wei had arranged for Han elites to marry daughters of the Xianbei Tuoba imperial family since the 480s CE. More than half of the Tuoba Xianbei princesses of the Northern Wei were married to Han men from the imperial families and aristocrats from the Southern dynasties, who had defected and moved north to join the Northern Wei. The khagans of the Yenisei Kyrgyz Khaganate also claimed Longxi Li ancestry, through descent from the Han dynasty general Li Ling. Li Ling, a grandson of Li Guang, had defected from the Han dynasty to the Xiongnu in the first century BCE. For this reason, the Kirghiz khagan was recognized as a member of the Tang imperial family. Emperor Zhongzong of Tang even said to the Kirghiz that "Your nation and Ours are of the same ancestral clan (Zong). You are not like other foreigners." The Tang Imperial family was watched over by the Zongcheng si (宗正寺). Other prominent members of the Longxi Li lineage from the Tang period included generals Li Jing and Li Jiongxiu, chancellors Li Yiyan, Li Kui, Li Wei, Li Fengji, and Li Zhaode, the official Li Zhongyan, and the poet Li Bai. The Tang Imperial Longxi Li lineage also included sub lineages like the Guzang Li (姑臧 ), from which Li Zhuanmei (李專美) came from, who served the Later Jin. During the Tang dynasty the