(b Wuxing, Zhejiang Province, c. 1235; d ?Wuxing, before 1307). Chinese painter. In 1262, in Lin’an (modern Hangzhou), the capital of the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), he sat the civil service examination but failed to qualify as a jinshi; he remained registered as a candidate, but in 1276, before he could retake the examination, Lin’an fell to the Mongol armies, thus placing him under the rule of the new, alien Yuan dynasty (1279–1368). Along with others of the educated élite who faced a moral dilemma in having to serve a foreign power, he was frustrated in pursuing an official career and returned to Wuxing to live the life of a yimin (‘left-over subject’ of the previous dynasty). In his home town he soon became known as one of the Eight Talents of Wuxing, a group of distinguished scholars and poets that also included the influential calligrapher and literati painter Zhao Mengfu, his younger contemporary (see ZHAO, (1)). In 1286 the Mongol emperor, Kublai Khan (reg 1260–94), offered Zhao a position at the court in Khanbalik (Chin. Dadu; now Beijing), despite his association with the previous dynasty. Zhao urged some of his friends to accept similar offers, but Qian refused and continued his quiet life as a painter. Meanwhile, his artistic reputation grew to such an extent that forgeries of his works were produced.

• Qian Xuan
  • China, §V, 1(ii): Painting: Song to Qing
  • China, §V, 3(iv)(a): Landscape painting: Historical development
  • China, §V, 4(ii): Literati painters and institutions
  • Japan, §VI, 4(viii)(b): Late naturalistic painting of the Maruyama–Shijo school: Maruyama Okyo
  • groups and movements
    • Zhao: (1) Zhao Mengfu
  • works
    • China, §V, 3(v)(d): Painting: Animals, birds and plants
    • China, §V, 3(vi)(d): Painting: Bamboo, plum and ink-flowers
    • China, §V, 3(vii)(c): Figure painting: Yuan to Ming
    • Ke Jiusi