Gāo Qǐ 高啟 (1336–1374), zì Jìdí 季迪, hào Qīngqiūzǐ 青丘子 and later Cháxuān 槎軒, native of Chángzhōu 長洲 (Sūzhōu prefecture). Universally counted the foremost early-Míng poet and the leading figure of the Wúzhōng Sìjié 吳中四傑 (Gāo Qǐ, 楊基, 張羽, 徐賁). During the last years of the Yuán, when Zhāng Shìchéng 張士誠 controlled Wúzhōng, Gāo refused service, retired to the marshes of Qīngqiū 青丘 at the Sōngjiāng 松江 with his wife’s family (the Zhōus of Wúsōngjiāng 吳淞江), and adopted the name Qīngqiūzǐ. Summoned to court in Hóngwǔ 2 (1369) to participate in the Yuán shǐ 元史 compilation, appointed Hànlínyuàn Guóshǐ biānxiūguān 翰林國史院編修官 and Zhūwáng jīng 諸王經 (tutor to the imperial princes), then promoted to Hùbù shìláng 戶部侍郎; declined the senior office and was granted leave to return home. Subsequently drawn into the Wèi Guān 魏觀 shàngliáng wén 上梁文 affair at Sūzhōu and executed by yāozhǎn 腰斬 (cutting in two at the waist) at the marketplace of Nánjīng in autumn Hóngwǔ 7 (1374), aged thirty-nine; with him died 王彝 Wáng Yí and other Sūzhōu literati. His verse collection survives as KR4e0029 Gāo tàishǐ Dàquán jí (SBCK) / KR4e0039 Dàquán jí (WYG); his prose as KR4e0030 Gāo tàishǐ Fúzǎo jí (SBCK) / KR4e0040 Fúzǎo jí (WYG). Other constituent verse collections (Fǒumíng jí 缶鳴集, Chuītái jí 吹臺集, etc.) are preserved in the eighteen-juǎn Dàquán jí. F. W. Mote’s The Poet Kao Ch’i, 1336–1374 (Princeton 1962) is the standard Western monograph. Wilkinson, Chinese History, §28.4 takes Gāo as the principal early-Míng poet; §43.7 takes his execution as the type case of Hóngwǔ literary purges. CBDB id 34385: 1336–1374, confirmed.