Task: Question Answering
Input (English): Context: Qi Baishi (1863~1957) is one of the best-known contemporary Chinese artists. His life shows he achieved success by combining talent with hard work. He was born in a peasant family. At 11 he was sent to learn carpentry . Through his work he got to know some local scholars. One of them, Hu Shenyuan, offered to teach his painting and poetry. During this period he earned his living by painting portraits and selling his works. Gradually he developed a reputation as an artist as well as a carpenter. In those years he devoted himself to poetry, calligraphy , and seal-carving. Although he admitted he was a versatile artist, his own criteria of his successes placed poetry first, seal-carving second, calligraphy third, and painting last. From 1902 to 1916, Qi toured the country five times, and he left his footmarks in many cities, such as Beijing and Hongkong. The trips broadened his vision and changed his style. In 1917 he settled down in Beijing, where he met many artists and scholars, and made friends with Chen Shizeng. Chen advised him not to _ early masters and to form his own style. Through long years of practice, Qi Baishi evolved a distinctive personal style. The subjects of his painting were wide and various, and the flowers, birds, fish, prawns , and insects he painted are most admired by his public. To improve his technique of painting prawns, he raised some at home and frequently observed their movements. He wrote in his diary about how he had changed his method of painting prawns: "At first my prawns owned a reasonable similarity, then they became even more realistic, and finally light and dark color1s became properly contrasted. These are the three changes." Qi Baishi was able to portray the same object in either the xieyior thegongbistyle. When he painted a dragonfly in a detailed manner, he even drew the veins in its wings. When he adopted a , free style, he used only a few dry, expressive strokes to form it. What is fascinating about his work is that in some pictures both methods are used. 
 Question: In his early life, what was Qi Baishi famous for?
Output (English): poetry