Late-Táng / early-Wǔdài scholar, hào Cānliáozǐ 參寥子. The preface to his KR3l0111 Táng quē shǐ 唐闕史 says he was born in the Qiánfú jiǎzǐ (= jiǎwǔ, 874 in some readings; 864 in others, the cycle being slightly corrupt in the preface), and that he was a grand-nephew (cóngsūn 從孫) of the late-Táng minister Gāo Kǎi 高鍇 (ÈYuè guānchá shǐ d. 840) — though the Jiù Táng shū biography of Kǎi omits Yànxiū’s lǐjí (native place). He passed the xiāngjiàn recommendation at 21 (i.e., c. 874–875), began transcribing the anecdotes that became the Quē shǐ, and was caught up in the Huáng Cháo rebellion (878–884), spending the Zhōnghé years (881–885) as a refugee south of the Yangtze (lǚpō Jiāngbiǎo 旅泊江表). The Sìkù compilers, working from the internal evidence of the preface’s jiǎchén compilation-year, place the Quē shǐ in Jìn Kāiyùn 1 (944), which would make Yànxiū a Wǔdài survivor (aged 71 at composition); this remains the standard but not universally accepted dating. CBDB id 94349 records his birth-year as 854 (Chinese Wikipedia and several Chinese Studies handbooks follow this), giving a fl. in the 880s; this person-note retains the Sìkù’s reasoning but flags the discrepancy.