Mid-to-late-Míng prose theorist, military official, and anthology editor. CBDB id 118816, dates 1512–1601. Zì Shùnfǔ 順甫; hào Lùmén 鹿門. Native of Guīān 歸安 (Húzhōu, Zhèjiāng). Jìnshì of Jiājìng 17 (1538). Served as Guǎngxī ànchá fùshǐ; later participated in the anti-Wōkòu (Japanese pirate) campaigns of the mid-Jiā-jìng period (1550s) under Hú Zōngxiàn 胡宗憲. His political career was complicated by friction with Yán Sōng 嚴嵩’s faction.
His principal work is the KR4h0115 TángSòng bā dà jiā wénchāo 唐宋八大家文鈔 (164 juǎn, prefaced Wànlì 7 = 1579) — the canonical anthology of the Eight Great Masters of Táng and Sòng prose (Hán Yù, Liǔ Zōngyuán, Ōuyáng Xiū, Sū Xún, Sū Shì, Sū Zhé, Wáng Ānshí, Zēng Gǒng). The grouping of these eight as a unit is Máo’s selection, and the term TángSòng bā dà jiā derives from this anthology — universally adopted in subsequent Chinese literary historiography.
He is a key figure of the mid-Míng TángSòng pài prose movement, alongside 唐順之 Táng Shùnzhī (compiler of KR4h0106 Wénbiān), Guī Yǒuguāng 歸有光, and Wáng Shènzhōng 王慎中 — collectively opposing the Qiánhòu Qīzǐ archaist program of 李攀龍 Lǐ Pānlóng and Wáng Shìzhēn (cf. KR4h0110).