Táo Běnxué 陶本學 (zì Sìyuán 泗源, hào Kuàijī shānrén 會稽山人, fl. late-Míng / early-Qīng transition), physician and obstetrical-gynaecological specialist of Kuàijī 會稽 (Shàoxīng, Zhèjiāng). The self-preface to his Yùnyù xuánjī 孕育玄機 (KR3ei073) is dated Tiānqǐ lóngfēi shǒusuì xīnyǒu — the inaugural year of Tiānqǐ 1 (1621). The work was later transcribed in 1713 (Kāngxī rényìn, 52nd year) by a disciple Qián Yáo 乾堯. CBDB 323325 records the name but no dates. Catalog meta gives 清 dynasty — though the self-preface clearly places the composition in late-Míng. The 清 dynasty marker likely reflects the dating of the surviving transmission via Qián Yáo’s 1713 transcription rather than the original composition.
Táo’s work is unusual among contemporaneous obstetrical literature in its literary self-consciousness — the preface explicitly criticises the “obstetrical specialty” status of the field and calls for a return to the Língshū / Sùwèn foundational sources rather than the “Chénshì and Xuēshì” later compendia. The Yùnyù xuánjī is organised under tiáojīng (regulating menses), bǎotāi (preserving the foetus), chǎnhòu (post-partum) — Táo’s preferred tripartite scheme — with the explicit doctrinal target being the cultivation of yùnyòng zhī yí (situational-applied judgement) rather than the mechanical application of formulas.