Despite struggling to pass the Imperial Examinations, Li Guang-dian was nevertheless recognised for his excellent leadership, organisational skills, and courage. He played a significant role in defending Kaifeng during the siege by Li Zi-cheng (李自成).

Kaifeng was divided into eighty-four sections and grouped into five defence teams. Li Guang-dian was assigned to the team that had to protect the part of Kaifeng that included the Jewish quarter.

Eventually, out of the five original leaders, all but Li Guang-dian perished. He was now responsible for the entire city. This was likely the most powerful military position ever to be held by a Jew in China.

Kaifeng was marked by violence and poverty during the six-month siege. There were multiple instances of murder and cannibalism. According to Li Guang-dian, from the 1st of September onwards, three to four hundred people in the army alone starved to death daily. The troops could hardly stay alive, much less defend the city or break through the rebel forces.

In the beginning, the defensive troops tried to prevent the water from reaching the city by pushing soil-filled bags against the northern gate of the metropolis, the side which faced the Yellow River directly.

Li Guang-dian and two battalions tried to do the same at the Cao Gate (曹门) near the northeast corner of the city wall. However, the water pressure was high enough to push through the cracks of the gates, eventually destroying much of the city's fortified walls.

The synagogue was now destroyed. Some of the Jewish congregation managed to escape to the north bank of the Yellow River — which flooded to the south. Most of them, however, perished.

Around the year 1650, Li Guang-dian, now retired in Nanjing, wrote and published his experiences defending Kaifeng from the rebel forces. It was initially titled The Daily Record of the Siege of Kaifeng.

In 1664, Liang, who was also present during the siege, re-published the book. This version was titled the Diary of the Defence of Kaifeng.

Li Guang-dian’s son, Li Luan (李銮), wrote the colophon and re-published the book in 1689.

Content extracted from: Chinese Jews, William Charles White.

There were carved blocks for the printing of this book in the past, but they had become scattered and worn out, and though one desired to re-carve them, so far there had been no leisure.

In the month of the Chia Ch’en year (1664), the Censor, Mr. Liang of Yen-ling (a county in Honan), obtained a copy of this book in the capital (Peking). The teacher was anxious lest after-generations might not know of the bitterness of the defence of the city of Ta-liang, and the grief and fear of its misery. My late father’s loyalty and integrity, his ability and powers of control, might be overwhelmed and not heard of, so he had it carved on the printing blocks, that it might be widely transmitted. Not until more than twenty years after its publication, in the yi ch’ou year (1685), did I, the degenerated son, see the book for the first time. Respectfully holding the book in both hands, I read it and wept.

The Censor previously had had no communication with my father, but particularly because he had been at that time with him in the besieged city, he believed that what was said in the book was true, and therefore he had generously manifested it in this way.

Yet I, the unfilial son, had kept the blocks handed down by my father and disregarded them, casting them aside. How could I escape blame in this matter? Therefore I gathered up the spoilt fragments and gain sent them to the carver, and also begged the Censor to write a preface, with the hope that this book might not become worthless.

My late father in his will said that this was only a rough draft, made during his illness, which had been carefully corrected, and that if by any chance there should be later any gentleman who would on his behalf re-write it in better literary form, so that it might be handed down in time and distance, then “I shall be grateful even though my virtues may be underneath the ground.” I respectfully kept these words, and constantly mentioned them to persons, but all of them would hastily decline with thanks! Then in the year chi-ssu (1689) Mr. Chou Ssu-sheng (whose studio name was Cheng Shan), of Ningpo prefecture (Ssu-ming), came on a visit to Ch’i, and seeing this book he heaved a great sigh, saying, “This can be transmitted; the only thing it needs is to put it in better literary form.”

So he was glad to revise and correct it, and drafting it several times he finally was not displeased with it.

Alas, my late father, merely an ordinary scholar, and aided by his colleagues on left and right, was able to resist the fire of Ch’uang (Li Zi-cheng), and finally saved the city from being disgraced by the thieves.

Had it not been for his faithfulness and sincerity, which was able to penetrate gold and stone, and to enlighten the sun and the moon, how would it have been possible to move the heart of Censor Liang to print it in the first instance, or to influence Mr. Chou to revise and correct it afterwards, and all without my begging them, that the book might be brought to this completion?

Mr. Chou by his own hand copied the whole book, changing the name to “Diary of the Defence of Pien.” I, the unfilial son, reverently read it, and again I wept. Once more I begged for a preface, and again sent it to the block -carvers. In the year that the first printing was made the original name was “The Daily Record of the Siege of Pien.” Then Censor Liang reprinted it and changed its title to “Diary of the Defence of the City,” which was better than the original title. Mr. Chou changed the title to its present name, which is both learned and fitting. From now on this book will be the standard edition, and my father’s name will not become unknown.

In regard to these two gentlemen, they were solicitous for the moral principles of the world, and for this reason did not spend virtue on me; but I have engraved their virtue on my heart, for it can never be forgotten.

K’ang Hsi, the chi ssu year (1689), on a fortunate day in the Twelfth Month, his degenerated son Luan-chieh, after manual ablutions, respectfully recalls it.