Zhao Zhiqian (; 1829–1884) was a renowned Chinese calligrapher, seal carver and painter in the late

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...

, "the leading scholar-artist of his day." Zhao's seal carving had profound influence on the later masters, such as Wu Changshuo and

Qi Baishi Qi Baishi (1 January 1864 – 16 September 1957) was a Chinese painter, noted for the whimsical, often playful style of his works. Born to a peasant family from Xiangtan, Hunan, Qi taught himself to paint, sparked by the Manual of the Musta ...

. He is also known under the

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theob ...

of Yifu (益甫) and his pseudonym (''hào'') of Lengjun (冷君), which he changed to Huishu (撝叔) and Bei'an (悲盦) respectively later in his life.

Biography

Zhao was born in 1829 in

Shaoxing Shaoxing (; ) is a prefecture-level city on the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay in northeastern Zhejiang province, China. It was formerly known as Kuaiji and Shanyin and abbreviated in Chinese as (''Yuè'') from the area's former inhabitant ...

, Zhejiang Province into a merchant family. He became a Xiucai at the age of 20, and obtained the title Juren in 1859 in Zhejiang provincial exam. With the outbreak of

Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion and civil war that was waged in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Han, Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It laste ...

in the following year, his political ambition was hindered. During the rebellion, his family shattered, and a number of his art works as well as his collections were lost. Later, he went to Beijing for the national exams. After repeated failures, he gave up his dream of becoming a government official. He submitted a request to become an alternative governor of a county in Jiangxi Province. He was remarried at 46, and had offspring. Zhao's studio name was ''Yangshi qianyibaishijiu he zhai congsu'', which may be translated as "The Studio where, looking upwards, 1,729 Cranes have been Observed". His written works include the first Chinese study of snuff-taking, entitled ''Yonglu Xianjie'', or "Researches done during Spare Time into the Realm of Yonglu, God of the Nose", an English language translation of which by Richard Lynn can be found in the 1991 Autumn edition of the Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society. He was also author and chief editor of the ''Jiangxi Tongzhi'', the Gazetteer of Jiangxi, published in the 7th year of the Guangxu reign (1881). Zhao died in 1884 at the age of 56.

References

* Zhao Zhiqian, ''Yonglu Xianjie'', translated by Richard Lynn as "Researches done during Spare Time into the Realm of Yonglu, God of the Nose", published in the Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, Autumn 1991. * Zhao Zhiqian, ''Jiangxi Tongzhi'', the Gazetteer of Jiangxi, published in the 7th year of the Guangxu reign. *

External links

* 1829 births 1884 deaths Painters from Zhejiang Chinese seal artists Chinese epigraphers Artists from Shaoxing Qing dynasty calligraphers Qing dynasty painters 19th-century Chinese painters 19th-century Chinese calligraphers {{China-painter-stub