Tao Zongyi

Tao Zongyi (1329–c. 1412), courtesy name Jiucheng and style name Nancun, was a native of Huangyan, Taizhou (present-day Luqiao, Taizhou, Zhejiang) during the late Yuan and early Ming. A man of letters, historian, and calligrapher, he repeatedly declined official summons from both the Yuan and Ming courts and lived in seclusion in Songjiang, farming and teaching. Over ten years he gathered what he saw and heard into the thirty-juan Nancun Chuogeng Lu, a documentary record of late Yuan society that also covers institutions, customs, and crafts. His Shuofu anthologized notes and miscellaneous writings from earlier ages, preserving much otherwise lost material, while Shushi Huiyao collects the lives and views of calligraphers and remains a foundational source for calligraphy history. Other works include Nancun Shiji and Guke Congchao. His writing favors factual record and compilation, drawing on a wide range of sources with a cautious editorial hand; it has had a lasting influence on later note-collecting and local historical studies.