According to Chu Hsi [Zhu Xi],
“Li” is
— Smith, Bol, Adler, and Wyatt, |
But very possibly the earliest use of li is the one instance that
it appears in the Classic of Poetry (Ode 210) where it refers to
the borders or boundary lines marking off areas in a field.
Here it appears in conjunction with chiang and is explained
as 'to divide into lots (or parcels of land)' (fen-ti )."
— P. 33 of "Li Revisited and Other Explorations"
by Allen Wittenborn, Bulletin of Sung and Yüan Studies
No. 17 (1981), pp. 32-48 (17 pages),
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23497457.