Qú Yòu 瞿佑 (1347–1433), zì Zōngjí 宗吉, hào Cúnzhāi 存齋, was an early Míng author of classical tales, a poet, and a literary official. Native of Qiántáng 錢塘 (modern Hángzhōu, Zhèjiāng). He grew up in the late Yuán and served under the early Míng as an education official in Lǐnghǎi 臨海 (Zhèjiāng), where he reportedly composed his major work during the Hóngwǔ period. In 1403 he was implicated in the controversies surrounding the Jiànwén cause and exiled to Bǎo’ān 保安 (Guìzhōu), where he remained in banishment for over a decade. He was not fully rehabilitated until advanced old age. He died in 1433 at the age of 87.
His most celebrated work is the Jiǎndēng Xīnhuà 剪燈新話 (KR4k0057), a collection of 20 supernatural tales in classical Chinese, set against the backdrop of the Yuan–Míng transition. The work — notable for its refined prose style and psychologically complex romantic ghost stories — was enormously influential: it was printed in Korea in 1421, inspired the Korean Geumo Sinhwa 金鰲新話 by Kim Shiseup 金時習, and was adapted in Japanese literature. Despite being temporarily banned in China for “lewdness” under the Chénghuà emperor (r. 1465–87), it remained a foundational text of the chuánqí tale tradition. CBDB records him at personid 243404 (dates not supplied in database; standard dates from Míngshǐ and literary historiography). Note: a second CBDB entry (personid 441658) appears to be a duplicate without dates.