signed QIANXUAN,inscribed ink on paper Qian Xuan (1235–1305), was a Song loyalist painter from Wuxing. He started as an aspiring scholar-official during the Southern Song.However,he had difficulty climbing the ranks and when the Mongol-founded Yuan Dynasty took over South China in 1276 he gave up the idea altogether.Qian Xuan’s life after 1276 was devoted to painting and he became noted as a flower-and-bird painter.He was also adept at figure painting and landscape painting as well.