[Lü Chi; zi Tingzhen; hao Leyu] (b Yin xian (modern Ningbo), Zhejiang Province, c. 1440; d c. 1504). Chinese painter. He was a prolific master of Chinese flower-and-bird painting (see China: Animals, birds, and plants in painting). Probably because he and his works had no literary dimensions, little was recorded about his life. One Ming (1368–1644) collection claimed to have included over 100 paintings by Lü; however, later imitations and copies from less talented artists have polluted the true corpus of his extant works. Lü Ji was from a region of natural beauty and one with a distinguished artistic tradition. Both factors are present in Lü’s work. A prominent collector in the area invited young Lü to live with him and copy his paintings by early masters. Lü’s fame grew, and he was summoned to the imperial court, where he eventually reached the rank of Commander of the Embroidered-uniform Guard during the Hongzhi reign period (1488–1505). While at court the Emperor remarked that Lü used his artistry as an excuse to admonish the throne, perhaps evidence that Lü Ji felt secure in his art and confident of his favour with the Emperor. More importantly, this comment suggests Lü invested his paintings with meanings that elevated them beyond images of nature. Their interpretations are generated by the rich tradition of literary imagery for flowers and birds, which was then already three thousand years old, and because in the Chinese language many different words exist for similar sounds, facilitating visual puns or rebuses....