Cáo Yànyuē 曹彥約 (1157–1228), zì Jiǎnfǔ 簡甫, hào Chānggǔ 昌谷, posthumous title Wénjiǎn 文簡. Native of Dūchāng 都昌 (modern Jiāngxī, on the eastern shore of Lake Pó). The catalog meta gives 1157–1208 as his lifedates, but the Sòngshǐ (j. 410) records his death in Shàodìng 1 (1228), and CBDB id 10840 confirms 1157–1228; the externally verified figure is followed here per protocol.
A student of Zhū Xī 朱熹 in his youth and a long-standing associate of Yáng Wànlǐ 楊萬里 and Zhāng Shì 張栻; his collected prose (Chānggǔ jí 昌谷集) preserves substantial correspondence with the dàoxué circle. Jìnshì of Chúnxī 8 (1181). His career bridged five reigns (Xiàozōng through early Lǐzōng), divided between frontier military-civil administration and central court office.
Notable substantive appointments: Manager of Confidential Documents (zhǔguǎn jīyí wénzì 主管機宜文字) under Xuē Shūsì 薛叔似 in the JīngHú Pacification Commission during the Kāixǐ war (1206–08); Prefect of Chéngdū during the Mongol-Jīn war on the upper Yangzi (Jiādìng 12, 1219); Vice-Minister of War (Bīngbù shìláng 兵部侍郎) in Bǎoqìng 1 (1225); briefly designated Minister of War, but vigorously declined and retired with the honorary rank of Huáwéngé xuéshì 華文閣學士. He served as Reader-in-Waiting (shìdú 侍讀) on the imperial Lecturing Curtain (jīngyán 經筵) under both Níngzōng and early Lǐzōng — the office during which he compiled KR2o0008 Jīngwò guǎnjiàn 經幄管見.
His political profile through the late Sòng factional sequence was distinctively independent: he opposed Hán Tuōzhòu’s adventurist 1206 war, opposed Shǐ Mǐyuǎn’s 1224 succession arrangements, and refused the 1225 Ministry of War in protest. His writings other than the Jīngwò guǎnjiàn and the Chānggǔ jí include the Jīnghú zòuyì 經湖奏議 (collected memorials from his JīngHú service), much of which is preserved in the Sòngshǐ and in the various Lǐ-school anthologies. Sòngshǐ biography in j. 410. CBDB id 10840.