Cáo Zhāo 曹昭 (fl. late 14th c.), zì Míngzhòng 明仲; native of Sōngjiāng 松江 (modern Shànghǎi). His father, the zhēnyǐn chǔshì (recluse master) Cáo, was a noted antique collector at home in Sōngjiāng. Cáo Zhāo was raised among his father’s collection of model-letters, paintings, ancient qín, old inkstones, and ritual-bronze vessels. From youth he made a systematic habit of consulting illustrated catalogues, investigating provenance, and grading objects by authenticity and quality. His Gé gǔ yào lùn 格古要論 (KR3j0170) — completed in Hóngwǔ 20 (1387) — is the foundational early-Míng connoisseurship manual covering thirteen object-categories, and is the principal Chinese connoisseurship work known in the West (through Sir Percival David’s 1971 translation). The Tiānshùn 3 (1459) expansion by Wáng Zuǒ 王佐 — the Xīn zēng gé gǔ yào lùn in 13 juàn — is a separate work. No further biographical record of Cáo Zhāo survives.