Hu Yinglin

'''Hu Yinglin''' ({{zh|t=胡應麟}}; 1551–1602), also known as '''Hu Yuanrui''', was a Chinese scholar, writer and bibliophile during the late [[Ming dynasty]]. A native of [[Lanxi, Zhejiang|Lanxi]],<ref name="Mazur1955">{{cite book|author=Mary G. Mazur|title=Wu Han, Historian: Son of China's Times |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8BRVSYvpX9sC&pg=PA78 |date=1 January 1955 |publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-3022-3|page=78}}</ref> he produced over 1,000 works of scholarship.<ref name=WDL>{{cite web |url={{wdl|4723}} |author=Hu, Yinglin |date=1525 |title=Thickets of Poetic Criticism |work=World Digital Library |language=Chinese |accessdate=6 June 2013 }}</ref> His two most noted works are the ''Shaoshishan fang bicong'' 少室山房筆叢 (''Notes from Shaoshishan Studio'', a work of historical and literary criticism) and the ''Shisou'' 詩藪 (''Thickets of criticism''), which is a treatise on poetry.<ref name=WDL/><ref>{{cite web |last=Wang |first=Minghui |title=Hu Yinglin (1551–1602) and the Shisou|url=http://www.international.ucla.edu/china/events/showevent.asp?eventid=8550|publisher=UCLA|work=Center for Chinese Studies|accessdate=30 May 2013}}</ref>

Hu earned the rank of ''juren'' (a low-level degree) in the [[Imperial examination|Imperial Examinations]] of 1576. He travelled extensively collecting works for his personal library, the ''Eryou shanfang'', often selling his clothes or his wife's jewellery in order to fund the purchase of texts. He eventually amassed a collection of more than 42,300 bamboo scrolls and around 20,000 paper books.<ref name="Chow2004">{{cite book|author=Kai-Wing Chow|title=Publishing, culture, and power in early modern China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a-_l3tDB47AC&pg=PA23 |year=2004|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-3368-7|pages=23, 33}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Theobald|first=Ulrich|title=Persons in Chinese History - Hu Yinglin 胡應麟|url=http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Ming/personshuyinglin.html|publisher=China Knowledge|accessdate=30 May 2013}}</ref> In later life, prevented from travelling due to ill health, Hu created an "armchair travel studio" (''wouyou shi''); since he was unable to visit the [[Sacred Mountains of China#The Five Great Mountains|Five Great Mountains]], he had them painted on the walls of his room.<ref name="Fu2009">{{cite book|author=Li-tsui Flora Fu|title=Framing Famous Mountains: Grand Tour and Mingshan Paintings in Sixteenth-century China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ptTzNr7FwgQC&pg=PA155 |date=1 January 2009|publisher=Chinese University Press|isbn=978-962-996-329-3|page=155}}</ref>

He was one of the first critics of fiction, arguing that it was similar to philosophy.<ref name="ChangOwen2010">{{cite book |editor1=Kang-i Sun Chang |editor-link=Kang-i Sun Chang |editor2=Stephen Owen |editor2-link=Stephen Owen (academic) |title=The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature: From 1375|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1jGz0qXPgM0C&pg=PA71 |year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-85559-4|pages=66, 93, 121}}</ref> Hu divided fiction into six subgenres: * ''[[Zhiguai xiaoshuo|Zhiguai]]'', records of strange events * ''[[Chuanqi (short story)|Chuanqi]]'', tales of the unusual * ''[[Zalu (literary mode)|Zalu]]'', informal notes * ''[[Congtan]]'', collected discourses * ''[[Bianding]]'', textual inquiry * ''[[Zhengui]]'', rules and admonitions He was aware, however, that this categorisation was imperfect, since one work could fit into multiple categories, and his system failed to include plays and novels entirely.<ref name="Epstein2001">{{cite book|author=Maram Epstein|title=Competing Discourses: Orthodoxy, Authenticity, and Endangered Meanings in Late Imperial Chinese Fiction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q6OGXnjyIA0C&pg=PA45 |year=2001|publisher=Harvard Univ Asia Center|isbn=978-0-674-00512-9|page=45}}</ref><ref name="Inglis2006">{{cite book|author=Alister D. Inglis|title=Hong Mai's Record of the Listener And Its Song Dynasty Context|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d9Sc3ywljtEC&pg=PA107 |year=2006|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-8137-0|pages=107–108}}</ref>

Hu was an admirer of the [[Gējì|courtesan]] and artist [[Xue Susu]], praising her "lovely and elegant appearance" and claiming that "Even those famous painters with excellent skills cannot surpass her".<ref name="HammondStapleton2008">{{cite book|author1=Kenneth James Hammond|author2=Kristin Eileen Stapleton|title=The Human Tradition in Modern China |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y_nBKizpn18C&pg=PA25 |year=2008|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7425-5466-5|page=22}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_5317430 | title=往事｜忆父亲王一平：当年捐出伊秉绶砚与明代林良画的背后}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hu, Yinglin}} [[Category:Writers from Jinhua]] [[Category:Chinese literary critics]] [[Category:Ming dynasty essayists]] [[Category:1551 births]] [[Category:1602 deaths]] [[Category:16th-century Chinese historians]]