In early 1937, on the eve of the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the "Popular Five-Day Journal" was compiled and printed by the Sacrifice League in Pingyao County, Shanxi, to promote the idea of ??resisting Japan and national salvation. In October 1937, he led some students from Pingyao Middle School to join the 11th Corps of the Fourth Column of the Shanxi Youth Anti-Enemy Team (formerly the Second Teaching Regiment), and was organized into a student army and served as a staff member. He imitated the "Red Army Soldier Textbook" and compiled a political textbook for soldiers of the 11th Corps. In 1938, he served as a member of the Working Committee of the 11th Corps of the Communist Party of China (his public position was the political officer of the Political Department of the Corps). In the autumn of the same year, he was transferred to the Propaganda Section of the Political Department of the Fourth Column of the Death Squadron to compile cultural textbooks and edit the "Frontline" newspaper. In 1939, he served as a political education instructor at the camp school of the spring transfer column. In July of the same year, he was appointed as the chief of the Propaganda Section of the Political Department of the 203rd Brigade and the editor-in-chief of "Northwestern Front". During the "December Incident" of 1939, he resolutely implemented the decision of the column party committee to eliminate internal die-hards and participated in the anti-die-hard campaign in the northwest. After the end of the anti-diegetic campaign in early 1940, he served as the propaganda section chief of the political department of the column. In 1942, he was transferred to the seventh branch of the Anti-Japanese University as deputy director of the political department. In 1943, he was transferred to the teacher training team of the main school as deputy political commissar. In 1944, he was appointed as deputy director of the training department of the seventh branch of the Anti-Japanese University. In 1944, he was transferred to the Yanmen Military Region of the Shanxi-Sui Military Region as the Propaganda Minister.
During the War of Liberation, he served as vice-principal of Helong Middle School in the Jinsui Military Region and vice-principal of Northwest Military and Political University.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as deputy minister of the Ministry of Culture and Education, member of the Cultural and Educational Committee, and director of the Cultural Bureau of the Southwest Region. In 1954, he was transferred to the Ministry of Culture of the Central Committee and served successively as deputy editor-in-chief and editor-in-chief of the editorial department of "Cultural Relics", head of the Art Education Department of the Ministry of Culture, deputy dean of the Cultural Institute, deputy director of the Cultural Relics Bureau, and consultant of the Beijing Library.
Li Changlu is a historian, connoisseur of cultural relics, calligrapher and calligraphy theorist, as well as a scholar of classical literature. In 1977, he was elected as the vice president of the Beijing Calligraphy Society. He was one of the members who advocated, prepared and founded the Chinese Calligraphers Association. In 1981, he was elected as a director when the Chinese Calligraphers Association was established. He is now a research librarian at the Beijing Library and a veteran Chinese calligrapher. Advisor to Professors Association.