Hu Yinglin (; 1551–1602), also known as Hu Yuanrui, was a Chinese scholar, writer and bibliophile during the late

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

. A native of Lanxi, he produced over 1,000 works of scholarship. 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. Hu earned the rank of ''juren'' (a low-level degree) in the

Imperial Examinations The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...

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. 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 Five Great Mountains, he had them painted on the walls of his room. He was one of the first critics of fiction, arguing that it was similar to philosophy. Hu divided fiction into six subgenres: * ''

Zhiguai ''Zhiguai xiaoshuo'', translated as "tales of the miraculous", "tales of the strange", or "records of anomalies", is a type of Chinese literature which appeared in the Han dynasty and developed after the fall of the dynasty in 220 CE and in the T ...

'', records of strange events * '' Chuanqi'', tales of the unusual * '' 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. Hu was an admirer of the courtesan and artist

Xue Susu Xue Susu (; also known as Xue Wu(薛五), Xuesu(薛素), Sujun among other pen names) (1564–1650? C.E.) was a Chinese courtesan. Known as one of the "Eight Great Courtesans of the Ming Dynasty", she was an accomplished painter and poet, and ...

, praising her "lovely and elegant appearance" and claiming that "Even those famous painters with excellent skills cannot surpass her".

References

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