Writers › Writer / Poet
You Mao
Southern Song official, poet and book collector from Wuxi whose Suichutang catalogue is one of the earliest private catalogues to note different editions
In a study at night, a desk holds a brush pot, a porcelain vase with a plum branch, a lit red lantern, a folded fan and an unrolled blank scroll, with no one seated there, while through a round window the moon rises over a lake with a sailboat.
Also known as Zi Yanzhi · Hao Sui Chu Ju Shi · Shi Wenjian
You Mao, courtesy name Yanzhi, sobriquet Suichu Jushi, came from Wuxi in Changzhou and passed the jinshi examination in 1151. As magistrate of Taixing he rebuilt the town walls, and when Jin troops later came south and neighbouring towns fell, Taixing held. Under Emperors Xiaozong and Guangzong he served as vice minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and supervising secretary, often sending up remonstrances, and rose to minister of rites and imperial lecturer. A devoted collector who copied any book he had not seen, he named his library the Suichu Hall, and its catalogue, the *Suichutang shumu*, notes variant editions under some titles, making it one of the earliest surviving private catalogues to do so. His poetry was ranked with that of Lu You, Yang Wanli and Fan Chengda, but his collection was lost and the Qing writer You Tong gathered what remained as *Liangxi yigao*. He died in 1194 and was named Wenjian.
Life and times
Dates 1127 CE–1194 CE