Even as a child, Ch’ien-lung was a great fan of calligraphy. Although he termed it extraneous to the affairs of government, in actual practice, he nonetheless displayed the attitude of calligraphic expert. Another way in which he revealed a professional attitude was in his connoisseurship of the historic calligraphic works in the imperial collection. This paper examines nineteen surviving works which Ch’ienlung inspected and wrote comments upon. Ch’ien-lung’s inscriptions on these works can be divided into the following three categories: discussions of Wang Hsi-chih’s writings, expressions of traditional 1iterati attitudes toward calligraphy, and comments on authenticity. In the last category, he demonstrates an approach similar in scope and methods to typical Ming-Ch’ing era calligraphy connoisseurship. Ch’ien-lung’s “academic style” connoisseurship of early calligraphy can be observed in colophons dating to as early as 1748, which demonstrate a professional maturity not seen in his discussions of painting until somewhat later. His involvement with calligraphy can be seen as the combination of a variety of activities which included collecting, authenticating, copying, and the writing of inscriptions. For Ch’ien-lung, these activities were mutually interrelated and had as their foundation his interest in authentification. The culture of calligraphic connoisseurship established in the mid-Ming dynasty--writing catalog-like records of individual works, adding connoisseurial comments in the form of colophons, writing and carving “calligraphic models” (fa-tieh), and critically examining authenticity-continued under the reign of Ch’ien-lung. He presided over its last heyday, for it seems that this distinctive culture went into decline after his time on the throne.