Yè Shèng 葉盛 (zì Yǔzhōng 與中, hào Tuìān 蛻菴, posthumous title Wénzhuāng 文莊) was a native of Kūnshān 崑山 (Sūzhōu prefecture), the heart of the Jiāngnán book-collecting region. He earned the jìnshì in Zhèngtǒng 10 (yǐchǒu, 1445), and over a thirty-year official career rose through the Bīngkē jǐshìzhōng (Supervising Secretary of the Office of Scrutiny for War), provincial xúnfǔ postings in Liáodōng, LiǎngGuǎng, and the northern frontier, and capital posts in the Bīngbù and Lìbù, culminating as Lìbù zuǒ shìláng (Vice-Minister of Personnel). His career spans the Zhèngtǒng — Jǐngtài — Tiānshùn — Chénghuà reigns and the Tǔmù crisis of 1449; he was active in capital politics during the Yīngzōng restoration. His biography is in Míng shǐ j. 177.
Yè is principally remembered as one of the foremost bibliophiles of the early-to-mid Míng. His library studio in Kūnshān, the Lǜzhútáng 菉竹堂 (“Hall of Green Bamboo,” the name drawn from the Shījīng Qífēng “Qī yù” 淇奧), held a celebrated collection — reportedly over twenty-two thousand juàn — catalogued in the Lǜzhútáng shūmù 菉竹堂書目 (6 juàn), one of the principal surviving Míng private-library catalogues and the foundation of the mid-Míng Jiāngnán bibliophile tradition that runs through Wú Kuān and Wén Zhēngmíng to the late-Míng / Qīng collectors of Chángshú and Sūzhōu. CBDB id 35164 (1420–1474) — distinct from the homonymous jǔrén Yè Shèng (CBDB 131970, 1435–1494). His major surviving works besides the Lǜzhútáng shūmù are Shuǐdōng rìjì 水東日記 (KR3l0085, 38 juàn, bǐjì covering institutional, anecdotal, and jīnshí matter c. 1460–1474) and the Lèibó gǎo 籙博稿 (collected writings). His role in transmitting YuánMíng transitional anecdote, in preserving early-Míng court matter, and in pioneering the systematic private library are the three pillars of his historical importance.