Hu Yinglin 胡應麟

Hu Yinglin 胡應麟 (1551—1602), courtesy name Hu Yuanrui 胡元瑞 or Hu Mingrui 胡明瑞, style Yangsheng 羊生 or Shaoshi shanren 少室山人 was a Ming period 明 (1368-1644) scholar and book collector. He came from Jinhua 金華, Zhejiang, and earned his juren degree in 1576. In his younger years he travelled a lot through all provinces and consulted the private libraries he was able to visit. He also purchased books and antiques to such an amount that he often had to lend money or sold the jewellery of his wife or his own robes. For his library he had erected a two-storey building, the Eryou shanfang 二酉山房 library, in which he assembled books of all types with an amount of more than 42,000 juan "scrolls". These are recorded in the catalogue to his library, the Eryou shanfang shumu 二西山房書目. Wang Shizhen 王世貞 once wrote an essay about the books owned by Hu Yinglin, the Eryou shangfang ji 二西山房記. As a writer, Hu Yinglin was one of the "Latter five masters" (Mowuzi 末五子), together with Li Weizhen 李维楨, Tu Long 屠隆, Wei Yunzhong 魏允中 and Zhao Yongxian 趙用賢. His collected writings are included in the books Shaoshi shanfang leigao 少室山房類稿, Shaoshi shanfang bicong 少室山房筆叢, Xugao bicong 續稿筆叢 and Shisou 詩藪.