Chén Kuí, zì Shūjìn 叔進, was a native of Línhǎi 臨海 in Tāizhōu 台州 (Zhèjiāng). He took the jìnshì in Shàoxīng 24 (1154) at the head of the list (狀元) and rose through the Sòng government to become Chief Privy Counsellor and Vice Grand Councillor (知樞密院事兼參知政事) in early Qìngyuán (1195–96). After clashing with the powerful Hán Tuōzhòu 韓侂胄, he was sent out to administer the Dòngxiāo Belvedere 洞霄宫 in retirement and died there. Posthumous title 文簡. He is remembered as both an institutional historian — author of the Nán Sòng guǎngé lù 南宋館閣錄 (KR2l0005), the foundational record of the Southern Sòng Imperial Library — and as one of the first systematic Chinese rhetoricians: his Wén zé 文則, a Southern Sòng treatise on rhetorical figures and prose techniques, is widely regarded as the earliest comprehensive Chinese stylistic. Lifedates 1128–1203 are the conventional dates given in Sòngshǐ and the Sìkù tíyào. CBDB lists multiple homonyms; the principal Wénjiǎn-titled official (id 11582) is the present figure.