Hu Xingjian is an author about whom very little biographical information is publicly available; his dates of birth and death, place of origin, and nationality cannot be confirmed. Only one of his works is currently held in the collection, the Chu Yin Ji (Collection of the Humble Recluse), commonly classified under literary appreciation. Judging from the title, "Chu Yin" carries the traditional literati connotations of self-deprecation and reclusion, perhaps suggesting that the author likened himself to a plain, unassuming tree and devoted himself to writing. Owing to limited sources, the circumstances of the work's composition, its contents, and its textual history are difficult to establish. On the available evidence, Hu Xingjian's writing belongs broadly to the tradition of classical poetry and prose and literary appreciation, and readers may glimpse his stylistic interests and aesthetic sensibilities through the Chu Yin Ji. Because verifiable material is so scarce, this introduction makes no conjectures about his life and merely sketches the shape of his writings on the basis of the facts at hand, leaving further details to be supplied should new sources come to light.
