Mid-Qīng official and bibliophile from Wúxīng 吳興 (Guī’ān 歸安), Zhèjiāng, the elder brother of 姚晏 Yáo Yàn and father of 姚覲元 Yáo Jìnyuán. CBDB id 514465 (index year 1788). His own preface to KR3em029 Yānhóu màizhèng tōnglùn, written from the Yǔchūnguǎn 雨春館 of the fǔshǐzhě 撫使者 (acting administration commissioner) yamen in Guǎngzhōu in the leap-month of Dàoguāng 21 (1841), indicates that he held an administrative post in Guǎngdōng at that date; he there records that his courtesy name is 聖常 (named by his younger brother as 家兄聖常). The 1841 Guǎngzhōu re-cutting of Yānhóu màizhèng tōnglùn, undertaken because the earlier Dàoguāng 5 blocks had not circulated widely, is his principal known editorial intervention.