李 stacks 子 (child) under 木 (tree): the tree's child is its fruit — the plum. A character so friendly it became one of the world's most common surnames.
李 is the surname of roughly 100 million people — Li Bai (李白) the immortal poet, Bruce Lee (李小龙, 'Little Dragon Li'), Li Ka-shing. With 王 and 张 it tops China's surname list. The idiom 桃李满天下 ('peaches and plums fill the world') praises a great teacher whose students flourish everywhere — students as fruit trees the teacher planted.
A tree 木 holding its child 子 — the fruit: PLUM, and the surname LI.
李小龙 — Bruce Lee's Chinese name means 'Little Dragon Li'; the plum-tree surname carried kung fu to the world.