The singular Yuán-period 元 gǔwén master, characterized by the imperial-Yuán editors of his collection as the Yuán-dynastic equivalent of Sīmǎ Qiān, Bān Gù, Yáng Xióng (Hàn), Hán Yù, Liǔ Zōngyuán (Táng), Ōuyáng Xiū, Sū Shì (Sòng). Zì Duānfǔ 端甫; hào Mùān 牧庵 (“Herding-Hut”). Native of Yíngzhōu Liǔchéng 營州柳城 (modern Liáoníng).
Career. Rose through the Yuán imperial bureaucracy to Hànlín xuéshì chéngzhǐ 翰林學士承旨 — the senior Hànlín literary office. His prose became the canonical model for Yuán-period imperial state-papers, bēimíng (steles), and mùzhì (epitaphs) for the senior Mongol-aristocratic and Hàn-Confucian elite.
Principal corpus. The 50-juàn / 689-piece Mùān jí KR4d0465, canonized by Wú Shàn’s 1332 collation at the Jiāngzhè Rúxué tíjǔsī under the supervision of Yáo’s disciple Liú Zhì 劉致 劉致. The composition comprises 3 gǔfù, 222 shī, 38 xù, 53 jì, 140 bēimíng and mùzhì (the largest single category — Yáo was the senior Yuán composer of imperial-grade memorial inscriptions for founding-Mongol-aristocratic families), 58 zhìgào (imperial-decree drafts), 2 zhuàn, 15 zàn, 11 shuō, 10 zhùcè, 13 zázhù, and 124 yuèfǔ (cí-form).
Notable compositions. Yáo’s mùjié míng for Téng Ānshàng 滕安上 滕安上 (preserved in this collection) is the principal contemporary biographical document for that figure.
Within the Kanripo corpus. KR4d0465 Mùān jí 牧庵集 (撰).
Reference. Yuánshǐ j. 174.