Fāng Sháo 方勺 (1066–1141), zì Rénshēng 仁聲, self-styled Bózhái wēng 泊宅翁 (“Old Man of the Floating-House”). Native of Wùzhōu 婺州 (modern Jīnhuá, Zhèjiāng). Under Yuányòu, while Sū Shì was governing Hángzhōu, was recommended by him at the prefectural examination and became a member of the Sū circle. Later he moved to Xīxī of Húzhōu — the location of Zhāng Zhìhé 張志和’s old mooring (whence the Bózhái cūn “Floating-House Village” toponym derived from Zhāng’s “Fànzhái fújiā” — “boat-house, floating-home” — phrase). Took the residence as his hào. Held the office of Guǎngōu chángpíng jìdiǎn (Charitable Granary Inspector) at one point — internal evidence of the KR3l0049 Bózhái biān 泊宅編 in his recording of malaria in Lóngnán and Ānyuǎn of Qiánzhōu (Jiāngxī).
CBDB id 29843 records the lifedates 1066–1141. The Zhèjiāng tōngzhì cites Pān Liángguì on Fāng: “lofty in transcendent flight, his spirit and feeling free and clear, like a high gentleman of the JìnSòng era, almost ending his days in seclusion” — i.e., a recognised literary recluse of the late-Northern-Sòng / early-Southern-Sòng transition.
His relation to the Fāng Là 方臘 rebellion of 1120 (Wùzhōu — Hāngzhōu uprising) is the work’s most notable feature: Fāng Sháo and Fāng Là were of the same Wùzhōu Fāng clan, and the Bózhái biān’s entries on the rebellion preserve clan-internal information not available in court historiography. Fāng Sháo’s other surviving prose: Bāoshuāng zhāi suíbǐ 泡霜齋隨筆 (1 juàn), substantially overlapping with the Bózhái biān.