Writers › Writer / Poet
Qian Qi
Tang poet, one of the Ten Talents of the Dali era, paired with Lang Shiyuan as 'Qian-Lang', known for five-character landscape verse.
In a study at night, a desk holds a brush pot, a porcelain vase with a plum branch, a lit red lantern, a folded fan and an unrolled blank scroll, with no one seated there, while through a round window the moon rises over a lake with a sailboat.
Also known as Zi Zhongwen · Qian Kaogong
Qian Qi, courtesy name Zhongwen, came from Wuxing (modern Huzhou, Zhejiang). He took the jinshi degree around 750–751 and served as collating editor, then after the An Lushan rebellion as commandant of Lantian, and later as vice director of the Bureau of Evaluation and Hanlin academician, hence the name 'Qian Kaogong'. He was one of the Ten Talents of the Dali era and was ranked with Lang Shiyuan. His poetry is mostly five-character verse on landscape and rural life; 'The Spirit of the Xiang Plays the Zither' is his best-known piece, and his collection is the Qian Kaogong Ji. He died around 780.
Life and times
Dates c. 710–c. 780 CE (some scholars give 722 for his birth)