Shěn Gāi 沈該
Style name Shǒuyuē 守約 (per the Sòngshǐ and most Sòng catalogues; one variant gives Yuányuē 元約; the Sìkù editors note the discrepancy without resolving it). Native of Wúxīng 吳興 in Húzhōu 湖州 (modern Zhèjiāng). Birth-date not in CBDB; death 1166 (CBDB).
Jìnshì on the “JiāWáng list” 嘉王榜 — the jìnshì candidates recommended by Crown Prince Zhào Shèn 趙昚 (the future Xiàozōng) before his accession. Held a series of court appointments under Gāozōng; in the Shàoxīng era rose to Zuǒ púyè 左僕射 (“Vice Director of the Left of the Department of State Affairs”) concurrently Xiū guóshǐ 修國史 (“Compiler of the State History”). For these chancellor-rank offices, Sòng-period reception calls his Yì-commentary Shěn Chéngxiàng Yì zhuàn 沈丞相易傳 (“Chancellor Shěn’s Yì Commentary”). The Sòngshǐ (juan 387) gives him a biography.
His one substantial surviving work:
- [[KR1a0023|Yì xiǎo zhuàn]] 易小傳 in six juan — the Yì commentary submitted to the court in the Shàoxīng era and praised by Gāozōng. The work systematically applies the Zuǒzhuàn and Guóyǔ divinatory exempla to the canonical Yì-reading, using the zhèngtǐ / biàntǐ (proper-form / changed-form) hermeneutic — a position unusual in the Southern-Sòng landscape (where Chéng’s lǐ and Shào’s shù dominated). Chén Zhènsūn records that Shěn also wrote a Xìcí bǔzhù 繫辭補注 of more than ten items, appended to the work; it is now lost.