A critic of the Neo-Confucianist views espoused by Zhu Xi , which was then the orthodoxy of the Ming government, he was persecuted and committed suicide in prison. He was born in Jinjiang , Fujian province in modern Quanzhou. However, the new faith did not take root in his lineage and the family stopped practising Islam during the time of his grandfather. His father made a living by teaching, and Li Zhi was therefore educated from an early age. In , he passed the village examinations, and five years later was appointed as a lecturer in Gongcheng in modern Huixian , Henan Province.
In he was then promoted to the Guozijian in Nanjing as a professor, but went into filial mourning , returning to his native Quanzhou. During this time he participated in the defence of the coastal city against Wokou raids. After returning from mourning in , he was assigned to the Guozijian in Beijing. In , he served in the Ministry of Rites in Beijing, where he became learned in Yangmingism as well as Buddhist thought. He was then assigned as a prefect of Yao'an County in Yunnan in , but left his post three years later.
After this, he took up a teaching post in Hubei on the invitation of Geng Dingli , but was attacked as a heretic by Dingli's brother, the scholar and official Geng Dingxiang , and eventually moved to Macheng.
In , he took the tonsure and became a Buddhist monk, but did not follow the ascetic lifestyle of other monks. Two years later, his work A Book to Hide was printed. He travelled during the s, visiting Jining and Nanjing , where he met with Matteo Ricci and discussed the differences between Buddhist and Catholic thought.
Returning to Macheng in , he was again forced to leave after attacks from the local magistrate for his philosophical views. In , after being accused of deceiving society with heretical ideas by Zhang Wenda and other officials of the Censorate , he was arrested and imprisoned, where he committed suicide. After his death, he was buried in Tongzhou , where his grave still remains.
