Chén Mènglèi 陳夢雷 (1650–1741), zì Xǐngzhāi 省齋, also Zézhèn 則震, was an early-Kāngxī court official, Yìjīng scholar, and the principal compiler of the great Yǒngzhèng-period imperial encyclopedia Gǔjīn túshū jí chéng 古今圖書集成. From Mǐnxiàn 閩縣 (Fúzhōu 福州, Fújiàn 福建), he passed the jìnshì examination in Kāngxī gēngxū 康熙庚戌 = 1670 and held office as Hànlín Compiler (Hànlín yuàn biānxiū 翰林院編修).
He had two periods of exile: first banished to Shàngyángbǎo 尚陽堡 (Liaoning) for political reasons in 1682, where he composed the Zhōuyì qiǎn shù 周易淺述 (KR1a0134) in 1694 (Kāngxī jiǎxū 康熙甲戌); recalled by imperial favor and assigned to collation work on the imperial copper-plate moveable-type printing project; later enmeshed in the imperial succession factional struggle (he had been close to the deposed Yùn Réng 胤礽), and on the Yōngzhèng emperor’s accession in 1722 was again banished, dying in exile.
His monumental encyclopedic work, the Gǔjīn túshū jí chéng in 10,000 juàn, was completed in his recall years (1701–1721) under the Kāngxī emperor’s patronage and presented to the throne; on his second banishment, the work was credited to the Manchu administrator Jiǎng Tíngxī 蔣廷錫 instead. Modern scholarship has restored Chén’s authorship as the actual editor.
The Zhōuyì qiǎn shù, composed in his first exile, takes Zhū Xī’s Běnyì as principal but supplements with Wáng Bì 王弼, Kǒng Yǐngdá 孔穎達, Sū Shì 蘇軾 (蘇軾), Hú Guǎng’s 胡廣 Wǔjīng dàquán, and Lái Zhīdé’s 來知德 (來知德) commentary, working from the limited library available to him in exile.