Zhào Mèngjiān, zì Zǐgù 子固, hào Yízhāi 彝齋, was a Sòng imperial-clansman of the eleventh generation from Tàizǔ, settled at Guǎngchénzhèn 廣陳鎮 in Hǎiyán 海鹽 (Jiāhé 嘉禾, modern eastern Zhèjiāng) since the southward crossing under Gāozōng. Bǎoqìng 3 (1227) jìnshì; held only modest local-prefecture appointments — Húzhōu recorder, deputy in the Transport Commission, prefect of Zhūjì 諸暨 — before being dismissed at a censor’s word and retiring. He never held court office.
Zhào Mèngjiān is one of the cardinal figures of late-Sòng / early-Yuán literati art history: a calligrapher and painter compared in his own time to Mǐ Fú 米芾, and the foundational figure for the genre of monochrome ink narcissus (shuǐxiān 水仙) and orchid (lán 蘭) painting. His surviving prose and verse are gathered in the four-juan Yízhāi wénbiān 彝齋文編 KR4d0347, reconstituted from the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn by the Sìkù editors. Cousin to the great Yuán painter-calligrapher Zhào Mèngfǔ 趙孟頫 (1254–1322); Zhào Mèngjiān remained a Sòng loyalist yímín and refused service to the Yuán, in stark contrast to his more famous cousin.
The Sìkù tíyào sets out a careful demonstration that Zhào Mèngjiān was born in Qìngyuán 5 = 1199 (per his own poem Jiǎchén suìzhāo bǎbǐ) and died before Xiánchún 3 = 1267 (per Yè Lónglǐ’s 1267 postface), and refutes Yáo Tóngshòu’s apocryphal Yuán-survival story. CBDB (id 15106) accordingly gives 1199–1263, which is the conventional figure followed here. The Kanripo catalog meta gives 1199–1295 (the discredited Yáo Tóngshòu figure); we follow CBDB and the Sìkù tíyào and correct the catalog.