Early Míng 明 statesman, Hànlínyuàn 翰林院 academician, and chief redactor of the imperially-commissioned classical scholarship of the Hóngwǔ 洪武 reign. Native of Jiāngnán 茶陵 (modern Hunan). Original name Rúsūn 如孫; later self-styled Tǎntǎnwēng 坦坦翁 (“Old Mr Smooth-and-Smooth”). Lifedates 1312–1399 are firm in the Míngshǐ 明史 liè zhuàn 列傳.
Career: served the late-Yuán government, then transferred to the early Hóngwǔ court at age 73 (Hóngwǔ 18 / 1385); within months he was appointed Director of the imperially-commissioned Sì shū wǔ jīng dàquán 四書五經大全 redaction project — though the Dàquán compilation actually proceeded mainly under the Yǒnglè-era 永樂 successor. His most consequential redactional achievement is the Shū zhuàn huì xuǎn 書傳會選 (KR1b0036) in 6 juǎn, the imperially commissioned 1394 corrective sub-commentary to Cài Shěn’s Shū jízhuàn (KR1b0017): in Hóngwǔ 27 / 1394 he and a team of court scholars produced the work in five months, identifying 66 specific errors in the Cài commentary that the Hóngwǔ emperor himself had identified through his study of astronomy. He also led the redaction of the Hóngwǔ-era Mèngzǐ jié wén 孟子節文 (the abridged-and-censored Mèngzǐ the emperor demanded), and held the post of Hànlín xuéshì 翰林學士.
He fell from favor in Hóngwǔ 30 / 1397 over the Nán běi rǔ 南北榜 controversy — when the Hóngwǔ emperor accused the metropolitan examination’s almost entirely Southern (Jiāngnán) winners of corruption — and was demoted to xī yuán 戍員 (frontier exile) at age 85. Released and restored to office under the Jiànwén emperor 建文; died in 1399. Other works: Huái fēng jí 槐風集 (collected works), and substantial poetry preserved in early-Míng anthologies.
His chief importance for Shàngshū studies is the Shū zhuàn huì xuǎn, which broke the strict CàiShěn monopoly of the late-Yuán Yánȳòu curriculum by institutionally documenting Cài’s errors — a curricular concession that would later be reabsorbed when the Yǒnglè Wǔ jīng dàquán (1415) re-canonized Cài Shěn unilaterally.