Líng Mèngchū 淩濛初 (1580–1644; CBDB id 691000), zì Xuánfáng 玄房, hào Jíkōng Guān Zhǔrén 即空觀主人. A native of Wūchéng 烏程 (modern Húzhōu 湖州, Zhèjiāng). He repeatedly failed the imperial examinations, despite coming from a literati family, and turned to commercial publishing and literary composition in Sūzhōu 蘇州 and Hángzhōu 杭州. Late in life he obtained a minor official post in Xúzhōu 徐州 and died there in 1644, during the chaos of the Ming–Qing transition.
He is best known as the compiler of the Erpai 二拍 collections: KR4k0043 Chūkè Pāi’àn Jīngqí 初刻拍案驚奇 (1628) and KR4k0048 Èrkè Pāi’àn Jīngqí 二刻拍案驚奇 (1632), together comprising 78 vernacular short stories (huàběn 話本) and forming the second half of the Sānyán Erpāi 三言二拍 canonical corpus (alongside Féng Mènglóng’s 馮夢龍 Sānyán 三言). He also compiled Nánxī southern drama texts and wrote dramatic and poetic works.