Li Lianying (; 12 November 1848 – 4 March 1911) was a Chinese imperial eunuch who lived in the late Qing dynasty. He was a eunuch during the regency of Empress Dowager Cixi, who was the de facto ruler of China from 1869 to 1908 throughout the reigns of the Tongzhi Emperor and Guangxu Emperor. Names Li's birth name was Li Yingtai (). He was renamed Li Jinxi () after entering the Forbidden City as a palace eunuch in 1856. In 1869, Empress Dowager Cixi gave him a new name, Li Lianying (), which became the name he is best known by. Life Li was born in a poor family in Zhili Province (roughly present-day Hebei) in 1848 during the reign of the Daoguang Emperor. He had been in the Forbidden City for several years but did not have the chance to even appear in the presence of the West Empress Dowager, Cixi. The eunuch serving Cixi at that time, Little An, did not let any one threaten his position. Li loved to gamble and because of his constant losses, he had racked up an enormous debt. To escape his debtors, Li left his hometown for the capital. Li would often visit an old eunuch whom he had met in the Forbidden City. From the old eunuch, Li learned that all the eunuchs who have had the privilege to serve and comb the hair of Cixi have been punished, with the exception of Little An. Li set his goal to become Cixi's favorite eunuch. Thus he set forth to master hair design. He went to brothels, not for the ladies, but to learn how they did their hair. After several months, he had finally mastered every aspect of hair design. The old eunuch made it known that Li was a hair specialist and Li was summoned by Cixi. The empress was very satisfied with his work and he became her favorite eunuch, later becoming her head eunuch. Due to only Li satisfying the West Empress Dowager, he was made the general head eunuch in the Forbidden City. In 1869, An Dehai, the eunuch who served as Grand Supervisor (), was executed by Ding Baozhen, the Provincial Governor of Shandong, for travelling out of the Forbidden City without permission. Earlier in 1861, Li had helped Empress Dowager Cixi in seizing power from a group of eight regents in the Xinyou Coup,