Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Ch'ên Chuan
CH'ÊN Chuan 陳撰 (T. 楞山, H. 玉几), poet and artist, was a native of Hangchow who lived late in the seventeenth and early in the eighteenth centuries, or approximately from 1670 to 1740. His family came originally from Ningpo, and he himself studied under the eminent scholar, Mao Ch'i-ling [q. v.]. Though he achieved fame as a poet and a painter, he lived most of the time in seclusion and had few friends. In the second and third decades of the eighteenth century he lived in Yangchow as the guest of a rich merchant.
The collected poems of Ch'ên Chuan, entitled 玉几山房吟卷 Yü-chi shan-fang yin-chüan, 3 chüan, were printed about the years 1716-21. In 1735 he was recommended to take the second special po-hsüeh hung-tz'ŭ examination of 1736, but politely declined. Friends of his who did take the examination were Li Ê and Hang Shih-chün [qq. v.], the latter having left an account of Ch'ên's life. Three of Ch'ên's paintings are listed in the 甌鉢羅室書畫過目考 Ou-po-lo-shih shu-hua kuo-mu k'ao (1894) by Li Yü-fên (see under Wang Shih-min); and a volume of miscellaneous notes by him concerning famous men of Hangchow was printed in the second series of the Ku-hsüeh hui-k'an (see under Li Ch'ing).
[1/490/2b; 3/433/15a; 26/1/35a; 29/4/20a; 31/4/24a; Yü-chi shan-fang yin-chüan, reprinted in 四明叢書 Ssŭ ming ts'ung-shu, fourth series (1934).]