Southern Sòng 宋 xīnxué 心學 (“mind-doctrine”) classicist, native of Chún’ān 淳安 county in Yánzhōu 嚴州 (modern Zhèjiāng). Zì Zǐshì 子是; hào Róngtáng 融堂. Lifedates conventionally given as 1175–1244 (CBDB id 42101 records only an index year of 1207 with all other date fields blank, but the standard secondary references and the SòngYuán xué àn 宋元學案 entry under Cíhú 慈湖 are consistent with the 1175–1244 bracket; floruit defensibly c. 1200–1244 in any case). A direct disciple of 楊簡 (Cíhú 慈湖, 1141–1226), in whose Lù Jiǔyuān 陸九淵 xīnxué lineage Qián Shí is one of the four or five chief late representatives.
He held no metropolitan office in his early career and lived as a bùyī 布衣 (commoner) “in the mountains, reading” (shānjū dúshū 山居讀書, the phrase used in the imperial recommendation), supporting himself in part by lecturing — at the prefectural school of Yánzhōu (twice invited there, once by Yuán Fǔ 袁甫 of 袁燮’s family during Yuán Fǔ’s tenure as Huīzhōu 徽州 magistrate, and once by Zhèng Zhīdì 鄭之悌 as Yánzhōu prefect), and at Shàoxīng prefectural school under Wāng Gāng 汪綱. In Jiāxī 2 / 1238 the chief councillor 喬行簡 (1156–1241) — who had earlier (much earlier, while zhīshì 知事 of Yánzhōu) personally encountered him — recommended him to court; he was appointed Mìgé jiàokān 秘閣校勘 (“Collator of the Secret Pavilion”) and subsequently transferred to Shǐguǎn jiǎnyuè 史館檢閱.
His chief surviving works are the Róngtáng shū jiě 融堂書解 (KR1b0020, 20-juǎn Sìkù reconstruction) and the LiǎngHàn bǐjì 兩漢筆記. The Róngtáng shū jiě is the principal Sòng Shàngshū commentary in the CíhúLù line. He was originally famous for a more extensive Shàngshū yǎnyì 尚書演義 in 30 fascicles, submitted to court at the time of his recommendation (recorded in Yè Shèng’s 葉盛 Shuǐdōng rìjì 水東日記); the Róngtáng shū jiě extant in the Yǒnglè dàdiàn is — per the Sìkù compilers’ inference — Qián Shí’s later, deliberately abridged revision of his earlier Yǎnyì.