Wú Qián 吳潛 (1196–1262), zì Yìfū 毅夫, hào Lǚzhāi 履齋, native of Níngguó 寧國 in Xuānzhōu 宣州 (modern Anhuī). Younger son of Wú Róushèng 吳柔勝, Bìgé xiūzhuàn 祕閣修撰. Zhuàngyuán (top jìnshì) of Jiādìng 10 (1217). His long career took him through the cānzhī zhèngshì 參知政事, twice to the office of yòuchéngxiàng 右丞相 jointly with shūmìshǐ 樞密使, and finally to zuǒchéngxiàng 左丞相 with the title Xǔguógōng 許國公. He repeatedly memorialised on frontier affairs, fiscal reform, and on the necessity of preparing for the Mongol assault — most famously his 1259 protest against the rise of Jiǎ Sìdào 賈似道 and Dīng Dàquán 丁大全, and his secret memorial against the proposed installation of the future Dùzōng 度宗 as heir apparent (“Your servant has not the talent of [Shǐ] Míyuǎn, the Prince of Zhōng has not the fortune of Your Majesty”). Lǐzōng was enraged; through the manoeuvres of Shěn Yán 沈炎 — Zhào Yǔxī’s man — Wú was stripped of office, banished first to Jiànchāng 建昌 and then to Cháozhōu 潮州, and finally demoted to Huàzhōu tuánliànshǐ 化州團練使 confined to Xúnzhōu 循州 (modern eastern Guǎngdōng), where in the 5th month of Jǐngdìng 3 (1262) he died — by tradition murdered by Jiǎ Sìdào’s faction; his own deathbed account speaks of foreknowing the day, composing a final memorial and farewell verse, and dying seated. Restored to office in Déyòu 1 (1275); posthumously Shàoshī 少師. Sòng shǐ biography 418. Surviving Lǚzhāi yígǎo 履齋遺稿 KR4d0330 in 4 juan, edited by Méi Dǐngzuò 梅鼎祚 of the Míng. He is also one of the most highly regarded cí poets of the late Southern Sòng. CBDB id 1959.