Qian Qi (his birth is variously placed around 710 or in 718, and his death around 780 or 782, with another tradition placing it at the end of the Jianzhong era or the beginning of the Zhenyuan era) was a Tang-dynasty poet. His courtesy name was Zhongwen; he was ranked Da in his family and came from Wuxing, modern Huzhou in Zhejiang.
Life
In the tenth year of the Tianbao era (751), Qian Qi passed the jinshi examination; one account dates his success to the ninth year. His first appointment was as a proofreader in the Palace Library. During the An Lushan upheaval, he fled and lived away from the capital; in the second year of Zhide (757), he was in Chang'an to welcome Emperor Suzong back to the capital.
During the Qianyuan era he served as magistrate of Lantian County and exchanged poems with Wang Wei, who was then living in seclusion in the Zhongnan Mountains. After 763 he entered the court, holding the offices of 司勳員外郎, 祠部員外郎, and 司封郎中, ending as 考功郎中; he also served as 太清宮使 and became known as Qian Kaogong.
Literary achievement
Qian Qi was one of the Ten Talents of the Dali era and was regarded as the leading poet of the group. His poetic talent was called “清逸”; he was ranked with Lang Shiyuan, in the contemporary saying, “Before Shen and Song, after Qian and Lang.” Because he spent many years in the central offices, much of his poetry consists of courtly occasional and presentation poems, and he was particularly skilled at farewell poems; contemporaries disparaged occasions when high officials setting out as envoys or governors had no farewell poem by Qian or Lang.
His poetry ranges across forms: the song-and-line poems are ornate and flowing, the old-style poems lucid and finely wrought, and the regulated verse leisurely, delicate, and polished in diction, making it representative of the Dali poetic style. His five-character quatrains in *藍田溪雜詠二十二首* followed Wang Wei’s *輞川集* and developed a distinctive quiet, pastoral interest. Gao Zhongwu praised his “體格新奇，理致清贍” and placed him first among the Dali poets; other critics faulted the poetry for limited engagement with social reality and a tendency to embellish peace.
The final couplet of *省試湘靈鼓瑟*—“曲終人不見，江上數峰青”—was widely recited. A tradition says that, when Qian Qi was still serving as a minor accounts clerk, he walked by a ferry on a moonlit night, heard someone chanting but saw no one; when he sat for the examination, the question was “湘靈鼓瑟起綴,” so he set what he had heard into verse and won the examiner’s approval.
Works
The recorded works include *錢起詩* in one scroll and *錢考功集* in ten. *全唐詩* preserves four scrolls of his poetry, but several poems by his grandson 錢珝 were incorporated into the collection, including *江行無題一百首*, *同程九早入中書*, *赴章陵酬李卿贈別*, and *罷章陵令山居過中峰道者二首*; *全唐詩外編* and *全唐詩續拾* add eight poems and two fragments.
Family
His son was 錢徽, and his grandsons were 錢可復 and 錢珝.
References
- CBDB Qian Qi (94271)
- 搜韵 錢起 (20818)
- 法鼓佛教人名规范数据库 錢起 (A019283)
- Wikidata Qian Qi (Q1133548)