Mei Zhuo was a scholar of the Ming dynasty. His official career, as well as the dates of his birth and death, is not clearly recorded; the publicly available information is limited, and details such as his native place and nationality remain to be verified. What can be confirmed is a single work attributed to him, Gu Yi Kao Yuan (An Inquiry into the Origins of the Ancient Yi), a study of the Yi jing (Book of Changes) that is commonly classified under philosophical readings. The book examines the textual sources and the ancient arrangement of the Zhou Yi, reflecting the Ming-dynasty scholarly concern with tracing textual origins and testing authenticity. Mei Zhuo's approach tends toward evidential inquiry, stressing the verification of names, institutions, and objects rather than empty discussion of moral principles; his style is plain and concise, and his arguments rest on classical sources. Because historical materials are scarce, his full scholarly profile cannot be described in detail, yet the surviving work shows his engagement with Yi studies and the criticism of ancient texts. Later researchers discussing the evidential strand of Ming Yi learning often refer to this book, whose value lies chiefly in preserving a systematic investigation of the ancient Yi from that period.
