author
Chuo Zhuang
b. 1078
A Song-dynasty writer and medical scholar, he is best remembered for Ji Lei Bian, a lively collection of notes that preserves everyday details, anecdotes, and historical observations from a turbulent era in Chinese history.
1 Audiobook
雞肋編
by Chuo Zhuang
About the author
Born in 1078, he was a Northern Song scholar known by the style name Jiyu. Sources describe him as being from Hui'an in Fujian and later associated with Yingchuan, and they also note his work in medicine as well as writing.
He is best known today for Ji Lei Bian (Chicken Rib Records), a miscellany that gathers historical notes, social observations, and stories from his time. Because it captures small, vivid details alongside larger events, the book remains a useful window into the final years of the Northern Song and the transition that followed.
Some biographical details, including the year of his death, are uncertain in the sources I found. Even so, his reputation endures through a work that feels surprisingly immediate: curious, observant, and full of the texture of daily life.