Bàowèng Lǎorén 抱甕老人 (“The Old Man Who Hugs the Jug”) is the literary pseudonym of the editor who compiled the Jīngǔ Qíguān 今古奇觀 (KR4k0055), a selection of forty vernacular short stories from the Sānyán erpāi 三言二拍 collections. The name alludes to the Zhuāngzǐ parable (chapter 12) of the elderly gardener (yuán lǎo 園老) who refuses to use a lever and pulley, preferring to embrace his own jug and pour water by hand — a figure of deliberate simplicity and rejection of clever devices.
The real identity of Bàowèng lǎorén remains unknown. Some scholars have proposed that the name is a pseudonym of Féng Mènglóng 馮夢龍 (馮夢龍) himself; others regard the editor as a separate, unidentified person. The anthology was compiled in the final years of the Míng dynasty, probably in Sūzhōu, and the earliest surviving printed edition dates to 1740 (early Qīng). No biographical data can be recovered. CBDB records no entry for this pseudonym.