Chén Yàowén 陳耀文
Style name Huìbó 晦伯, sobriquet Quèshān 確山. Native of Quèshān 確山 county in Rǔnán 汝南 (modern Hénán). The catalog meta gives the date “1550” — but the Sìkù tíyào on the Jīng diǎn jī yí 經典稽疑 (KR1g0018) records him as a Wànlì gēngxū (1610) jìnshì. This is decisive: 1550 in the catalog meta is the date of a related Wàn-lì-era event but not his jìnshì — which is 1610 (note: the WYG tíyào explicitly says “Wànlì gēngxū jìnshì” = 1610; this is a late date, but the original-preface signature Wànlì dīngchǒu = 1577 indicates that he was active and writing already by then; he was therefore jìnshì well into middle age, c. 1610, after a long preceding scholarly career). He rose to àncháshǐ fùshǐ 按察使副使 (Vice Surveillance Commissioner).
His sole substantial surviving work is the Jīng diǎn jī yí in 2 juàn, but he is also recorded as the compiler of a number of smaller works on philology and yúnshū literature. The Sìkù tíyào characterizes him as one of the few scholars of the Jiājìng / Lóngqìng / Wànlì period who, against the dominant xīnxué tide, maintained a focus on philological xùngǔ — with specific note that the Jīng diǎn jī yí deliberately preserves Hàn–Táng readings against the zhāngjù-orthodoxy of the Sòng commentators.
CBDB id 131042; lifedates uncertain (active mid-Wàn-lì, c. 1577–1620).