Baowenglaoren

Baowenglaoren, usually written in Chinese as 抱瓮老人, is generally understood to be a pseudonym rather than a firmly identified historical name. Sources describe the compiler's life as largely unknown, though he is associated with Gusu in late Ming China.

Baowenglaoren is best known as the editor of Jin Gu Qi Guan (Stories Old and New), a celebrated collection of 40 vernacular stories. The anthology draws its selections from Feng Menglong's Sanyan and Ling Mengchu's Erpai, helping preserve and popularize some of the most memorable short fiction of the period.

Because so little can be confirmed about the person behind the name, the lasting interest here is really literary: the shaping of a collection that had wide influence and remained one of the most widely circulated gateways into classical Chinese storytelling.