Cáo Yǐngfǔ 曹穎甫 (1866–1937), original given name 家達 Jiādá, zì Yǐngfǔ 穎甫 / Péngnán 鵬南, hào Zhuócháo 拙巢, was one of the leading Shanghai-school jīngfāng 經方 (canonical-prescription) physicians of the Republican period and a major teacher at the Shanghai TCM Specialist College 上海中醫專門學校 (founded 1916 by 丁甘仁 Dīng Gānrén). Native of Jiāngyīn 江陰 (Jiāngsū), Cáo trained originally as a literatus (he was a productive cí 詞 poet and calligrapher) and turned to medicine in his thirties.
As a teacher Cáo was the principal exponent of the late-Republican Shanghai jīngfāng movement — the position that classical Chinese medicine should be practiced strictly through the prescriptions of the Shānghán lùn and Jīnguì yào lüè, with post-Hàn medical literature being “微不足道” (negligible). His principal works are the Shānghán fā wēi 傷寒發微 and Jīnguì fā wēi 金匱發微 (the pair “Cáoshì ShānghánJīnguì fā wēi hé kān” = KR3ef093) and the Jīngfāng shí yàn lù 經方實驗錄 — the latter, a case-record collection edited by his students 姜佐景 Jiāng Zuǒjǐng (and others), is one of the most influential twentieth-century Chinese-medicine clinical-case collections. Cáo’s students included 秦伯未 Qín Bówèi, Yán Cāngshān 嚴蒼山, Xǔ Bànlóng 許半龍, Zhāng Cìgōng 章次公 — the principal Republican-era cohort of Shanghai TCM educators.
Cáo was killed in Jiāngyīn in late November 1937 during the Second Sino-Japanese War, reportedly resisting the Japanese army’s occupation. He was 71. His death is recorded in 秦伯未 Qín Bówèi’s 1924 preface and subsequent memorial writings.