Cui Shu was a scholar in pre-modern China, represented in this collection by a single work, Kaoxin lu (A Record of Testing What Is Trustworthy), commonly classified under Eastern philosophy. Public information about him is limited: his dates of birth and death, nationality and English name are not clearly recorded, so a fuller account of his life cannot be given here. Judging from the surviving work, his writing centres on the textual criticism and authentication of classical books, stressing the need to verify the historical events and statements recorded in ancient texts rather than trusting long-established accounts, and showing a cautious, evidence-based approach to scholarship. The title Kaoxin lu itself states this aim: to trace transmitted records to their sources and to distinguish the credible from the doubtful. Work of this kind belongs to the Chinese tradition of textual research (kaoju xue), as distinct from writings that emphasise philosophical exposition. On the evidence available here, readers can approach Cui Shu through Kaoxin lu and learn about his methods of verification, his prose style, and the reference value of his work for later study of ancient texts.
