Lǐ Bǎojiā 李寶嘉, pen name Lǐ Bóyuán 李伯元, was born in 1867 in Wǔjìn 武進, Jiāngsū province, and died in 1906 (CBDB id 77664; dates confirmed by Qīngdài rénwù shēngzú nián biǎo 《清代人物生卒年表》 #8520). He was a prolific journalist, editor, and fiction writer active in the late Qīng Shanghai literary world. After an unsuccessful attempt at the civil service examinations, he moved to Shanghai and became a major figure in the new commercial press. He founded Shìjiè Fánhuá Bào 世界繁華報 and edited Xiù Xiàng Xiǎoshuō 繡像小說, both instrumental in the development of the Shanghai fiction industry. He is best known as the author of Guānchǎng Xiànxíng Jì 官場現形記 (KR4k0119), one of the four canonical “exposé novels” (qiǎnzé xiǎoshuō 譴責小說) of the late Qīng. Wilkinson’s Chinese History: A New Manual places him among the Shanghai settlement literati contributing to Diǎnshí Zhāi Huàbào 點石齋畫報 and the Shēnbào press.