LI CHIEN

(23 MAY 1747–7 NOVEMBER 1799)

Li Chien (Chien-ming; ERH-CH’IAO), a native of Shun-te, Kwangtung, did not achieve fame in life beyond a select circle of friends who genuinely admired his genius. Son of a moderately successful businessman, Li was known as a prodigy at the age of nine; his poetic talent was later discovered by the bibliophile-scholar-official Li T’iao-yüan (1734–1803) who went to Kwangtung in 1777 as an assistant examiner. Yet, despite much encouragement, Li Chien only achieved the rank of a licentiate, as late as 1789. Suffering from asthma and frail health, Li spent his life among books and the hills and streams of his native province which he loved. Known also for his painting and calligraphy, he was often spoken of as one of the “Four Masters of Ling-nan” (the other three being Chang Ching-fang, Huang Tanshu, and Lü Chien, all three among his closest friends).

Despite the lack of official distinction, however, Li was held in high regard by his contemporaries. The poet Yüan Mei (q.v.) was said to have invited him to come to Hangchow for a visit, which he declined. The poet Hung Liang-chi (q.v.) compared his poetry to the cry of an “enraged lion drinking from a mountain stream,” or “the swift lightning illuminating a forest.”

Li’s oeuvre consists of 1,825 shih poems, written between 1771 and 1795, which he himself edited into twenty-five Chinese volumes (arranged one year per volume). This work was published in 1796, on the poet’s fiftieth birthday, under the title Wu-pai-ssu feng ts’ao-t’ang shih-ch’ao (Poems from the Thatched Hall [Facing] Five Hundred and Four Mountain Peaks). At the time of his death, he also left two separate, smaller collections of his lyrics (tz’u) and his yüeh-fu poetry, respectively, under the titles of Yao-yen-ko tz’u-ch’ao (Lyrics from the

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(Tr. Hsin-sheng C. Kao)