Máo Jìn 毛晉
The major late-Míng book-publisher and bibliophile. Zì Zǐjìn 子晉 (whence the common reference Máo Zǐjìn); hào Jígǔgé zhǔrén 汲古閣主人 (“Master of the Drawing-from-Antiquity Pavilion”), Yǐnhú 隱湖 (“Hidden-Lake”). Native of Chángshú 常熟 (Jiāngsū). Lifedates 1599–1659.
Founder and operator of the Jígǔ gé 汲古閣 publishing-house in Chángshú — arguably the single most important non-governmental Chinese publisher of the late Míng and early Qīng. Over his career, Máo Jìn published or reprinted more than six hundred major titles across the Chinese literary, historical, philosophical, and religious traditions, including substantial Buddhist-canonical and Buddhist-literary materials. His editorial standards, typographical quality, and commitment to preservation of rare works established Jígǔ gé editions as among the most highly-regarded book-printings of the late-imperial period.
Buddhist-publishing contributions include Chán master Mùyún Tōngmén’s 牧雲通門 Lǎnzhāi bié jí 嬾齋別集 KR6q0212 (Máo and Mùyún were Chángshú fellow-natives and exact contemporaries); and collaborations on numerous other Buddhist-literary projects of the Wànlì / Chóngzhēn / Shùnzhì decades.
Máo Jìn’s lay Buddhist commitments are less visible in his career than his secular literary-publishing work, but his contribution to Chinese Buddhist publishing through the Jígǔ gé has been significant for the modern canonical tradition: many classical Buddhist literary works survive today specifically in Jígǔgé printings.
Standard biographical sources: Míng shǐ 明史; extensive modern scholarship on the Jígǔ gé.