Lü Bi, whose life, nationality, and dates of birth and death are all unknown, has very limited publicly available information. From extant bibliographic records, two works are attributed to him, namely A History of the Ming Palace and A Brief History of the Ming Dynasty. Both deal with the Ming court and with anecdotes of the court and the wider world, and are clearly compilations of historical material, focusing on institutional regulations, palace observations, and precedents of the preceding dynasty; they can serve as references for understanding Ming political life and social conditions. In common classification, Lü Bi's works are placed under Eastern philosophy, a categorization that may relate to their concern with Ming thought, culture, and institutional change. Because reliable biographical records are lacking, his family background, associations, and the circumstances of his writing are difficult to verify; one can only infer from his transmitted works a general orientation toward Ming historical events and palace lore. Readers should compare his books with related historical sources in order to better appreciate their value as historical material.
