Ye Cai was a scholar of the Southern Song dynasty. His life and official career are now unknown, and the available public information is limited. He is chiefly remembered for his Collected Explanations of the Reflections on Things at Hand (Jinsilu jijie). The Reflections on Things at Hand, compiled by Zhu Xi and Lü Zuqian, is an introductory anthology of Neo-Confucian thought that gathers sayings of the Northern Song masters Zhou Dunyi, Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi, and Zhang Zai, organizing the essentials of Neo-Confucianism under topical headings. Ye Cai's collected explanations gloss the text item by item, clarifying the meaning, tracing sources, and guiding beginners step by step into the material. The work circulated widely over the centuries and remains one of the basic commentaries for reading the Reflections, holding a place in the tradition of commentary on Neo-Confucian classics. Ye Cai's annotations are known for their plainness and concision; he avoids elaboration and focuses on explaining wording and argument, and later scholars often cite him. Today only this one work and his identity as a commentator can be verified, yet they retain reference value for the study of the transmission and interpretation of Neo-Confucianism in the Southern Song.
