Chen Jiru (1558-1639) was one of the great late-Ming arbiters of culture and taste, and the impact of his innovations can still be traced in present-day China. In late Ming, when culture and taste enjoyed a social prestige beyond their usual standing, Chen's influence appears even greater than it may have otherwise. This is the first major work in any language to examine Chen's background, make a contrastive study of the genres he utilised in forging his literary reputation, and to examine the use that publishers and others have made since of the literary personae he constructed. A study clearly of interest to historians of early Modern China, as well as to those who study cultural and print histories of both East and West.

Jamie Greenbaum, PhD. (2003 ANU) is presently working on a project at Peking University. His broad interest is the Chinese world for the past half millennium, and he recently published a translation and commentary on the early Communist leader Qu Qiubai, Superfluous Words (Pandanus, 2006).