CH'I PAI-SHIH

born Nov. 22, 1863, Hsiang-t'an, Hunan province, China died Sept. 16, 1957, Peking Pinyin Qi Baishi, also called Ch'i Huang with Chang Ta-ch'ien (q.v.), one of the last of the great traditional Chinese painters. Ch'i Pai-shih was of humble origins and largely through his own efforts became adept at the arts of poetry, calligraphy, and painting. He was active to the end of his long life and served as head of the Peking Institute of Chinese Painting. His prodigious output reflects a diversity of interests and experience, generally within the smaller things of the world rather than the large landscape, and he continued the styles of such 17th- and 18th-century Individualists as Shih-t'ao and Chu Ta (qq.v.).