This study aims to interpret Li Kung's intellectual, significance in: the Ch'ing intellectual, history from, an alternative perspective. In the modern scholarship, Li has often been depicted as the major disciple of Yen Yüan. Accordingly, Li's later intellectual efforts in the k'ao-cheng scholarship has therefore been interpreted as a betrayal of his mentor and a major failure of the development of the so-called Yen Li School. However, I have argued that if we pay mare attention to Li'own intellectual agenda, we can discern that Li had embraced an intellectual ambition, which is very different from Yen Yüan's and which deserves a serious evaluation for its own sake. My investigation shows that in order to gain wider recognition from the other Confucian scholars, Li had been eager to associate himself with a variety of Confucian scholars of various intellectual backgrounds. Li was especially very interested in taking long trips to visit famous Confucian scholars in south China to exchange ideas with them. Indeed, his efforts in the ao-cheng scholarship and his engagement in the k'ao-cheng debates earned him high reputation from the southern Confucian scholars. As a minor figure from a small town in north China, which had long been a peripheral area far away from the intellectual and cultural centers in south China, Li Kung appreciated very much the famous southern scholars' confirmation of his intellectual achievement. By viewing Li Kung's own intellectual development from this alternative perspective, and contextualizing Li Kung's intellectual trajectory in the historical setting which reflected the long term intellectual and cultural imbalance between north and south China, my study shed new light on our understanding of the dynamics of the early Ch'ing Confucian intellectual activities. In conclusion, instead of being viewed as mainly a compromise or Li's own intellectual trajectory, as I have argued, could well be perceived as a successful story of realizing Li's own intellectual ambition.