Yuán Shū 袁樞 (1131–1205), zì Jīzhòng 機仲, of Jiàn’ān 建安 (Fújiàn). Jìnshì of Lóngxīng 1 (1163); placed first in the cífù 詞賦 examination at the Lǐbù 禮部 in the early Xiàozōng 孝宗 reign. Held a sequence of capital and provincial offices, eventually rising to Vice Director of the Ministry of Works (gōngbù shìláng 工部侍郎) and, with the title of Editor of the Right-Civility Hall (yòuwén diàn xiūzhuàn 右文殿修撰), prefect of Jiānglíng 江陵; later supervised the Tàipíng Xīngguó Palace 太平興國宮 as a sinecure. Biography in Sòngshǐ 389. Compiler of the Tōngjiàn jìshì běnmò 通鑑紀事本末 (KR2c0001), which by reorganising Sīmǎ Guāng’s chronicle into 239 self-contained topics inaugurated the jìshì běnmò 紀事本末 genre — the third of the three principal forms of traditional Chinese historiography after annals-biography and pure annals. CBDB gives a death year of 1205, consistent with the Sòngshǐ and Wilkinson; some bibliographic catalogs (including the present meta) print 1203, followed here only as a rejected variant.