(b She xian, Anhui Province, 1575; d 1629). Chinese painter and poet. His family moved to Jiading, now part of Shanghai, where he spent most of his life. Li received his juren degree in 1606 and twice attempted the higher examinations, failing the first and arriving late for the second, which disqualified him. Having the means, he chose to abandon pursuit of a government career to lead a cultured life of leisure. He built a house and garden in Nanxiang, near Jiading, called Tan yuan (Sandalwood Garden) after the sandalwood trees that grew there, using the garden’s name thereafter as one of his hao names. He is classed, along with Tang Shisheng (1551–1636), Lou Jian (d 1631) and Cheng Jiasu (1565–1644), as one of the Four Gentlemen of Jiading. All were well-known poets, and Li and Cheng were painters. Li is not known as a calligrapher, although he had an adequately trained hand in a style based on that of Su Shi. In seal-carving, contemporaries praised him as the rival of He Shen ( fl c. 1573–1620). However, while He Shen turned to Han-period (206 BC–AD 220) seals as models (see CHINA, §XIII, 22), carving intaglio and deliberately wrecking surfaces to give an antique flavour, Li typically carved in relief, in the more conservative style used by Zhao Mengfu of the 13th and 14th centuries and Wen Peng of the 16th. Li also enjoyed carving bamboo.