Yè Zǐqí 葉子奇
Zì Shìjié 世杰, hào Jìngzhāi 靜齋. Native of Lóngquán 龍泉 (in modern Zhèjiāng). Birth and death years not securely recorded; he flourished c. 1378 (Wilkinson) and is conventionally placed in the late-Yuán / early-Míng transition. CBDB person id 131947 (Ming Biographical Materials Index p. 728, no fixed dates).
In the early Míng (Hóngwǔ era, after 1368) Yè Zǐqí was recommended to office and served as Chief Secretary (zhǔbù 主簿) of Bālíng 巴陵 (in modern Húnán). He is best known as the author of the Cǎomùzǐ 草木子 (Master Vegetation), a wide-ranging early-Ming biji (informal historical-and-anecdotal notebook) bearing a self-preface dated 1378. The Cǎomùzǐ preserves much rare information on the Yuán dynasty, including military and administrative anecdotes; Endymion Wilkinson cites it as a primary source for late-Yuán figures and events. The work was printed by Zhōnghuá Shūjú in 1959 in the standard scholarly edition.
His commentarial work on Yáng Xióng’s Tàixuán jīng, the Tàixuán běnzhǐ 太玄本旨 (KR3g0002) in 9 juàn, is one of the very few late-imperial sustained commentaries on the Tàixuán and the principal Míng-period exposition; the Sìkù editors classify it within zǐbù shùshù lèi. The Běnzhǐ takes a revisionist yìlǐ stance, rejecting the Hàn-era calendrical-and-pitch-pipe framework as forced harmonization.