Yáo Shìlín 姚士粦
Style name Shūxiáng 叔祥. Native of Hǎiyán 海鹽 in Jiāxīng 嘉興 prefecture (modern northern Zhèjiāng), active ca. 1590–1620 (late Wànlì 萬曆 to early Tiānqǐ 天啟). No examination success or office; supported through the literary network of his fellow Hǎiyán resident Hú Zhènhēng 胡震亨 (1569–1645), and contributed several reconstructions of lost pre-Hàn and Hàn texts to Hú’s anthology Yányì zhì lín 鹽邑志林 (“Records of [our] Salt-County’s Studies”), which printed his works.
Unusual biographical trajectory: Zhōu Liànggōng’s 周亮工 (1612–1672) anecdotal collection Shū yǐng 書影 records that Shìlín was orphaned at thirteen and at twenty was still illiterate, having been taken in as a household dependent by the Jiāng 姜 family of Déqīng 德清; the Jiāng tutor taught him to read syntax (jùdòu 句讀), and only late in life did he establish himself in scholarship. The Sìkù editors retell the story in the tiyao of KR1a0005.
Surviving recompilations include Lùshì Yìjiě 陸氏易解 (Lù Jì Zhōuyì zhù, KR1a0005), the Hàn shì shàngshū 韓氏尚書 fragments (Hán Yīng 韓嬰), and various Hàn philological materials in the Yányì zhì lín set.