Late-Táng frontier official, fl. 862–864. He served as cōngshì 從事 (administrative aide) to Cài Xí 蔡襲, who held the post of Ānnán jīnglüèshǐ 安南經略使 (Military Surveillance Commissioner of Annam) under Yìzōng 懿宗 in Xiántōng 咸通 3–5 (862–864). The Sìkù editors note that the XīnTángshū yìwénzhì assigns Cài Xí to the office of Lǐngnán xīdào jiēdù shǐ 嶺南西道節度使, but Sīmǎ Guāng’s Tōngjiàn gives him as Ānnán jīnglüèshǐ; the Tōngjiàn is correct. Fán Chuò was thus stationed in Annam (modern northern Vietnam) at the moment when Nánzhào 南詔 forces invaded Annam and sacked Hà-nội (then Jiāozhōu 交州) in 863. Out of his firsthand experience he composed the Mánshū 蠻書 KR2i0007 in ten juàn — the principal Táng ethnographic / topographical treatise on Yúnnán — and presented it to the throne via the Ānnán jūnzhōu jiāngkǒu route. The catalog meta gives fl. 9th c.; CBDB id 95005 places his floruit at 862–864, in agreement with the internal evidence of the Mánshū. CBDB id 489904 is a separate, later entry without dates. Fán’s hometown and ancestry are not preserved in the standard histories.