Wu Mingji

Wu Mingji was a sixteenth century scholar from the Shaoxing region. He is best known for the compilation of ''Chaoxian shi xuan'' , a collection of several hundred poems written by Korean scholars in classical Chinese.

Much of what is known about Wu Mingji is contained in the preface to ''Chaoxian shi xuan''. Wu visited Korea twice during the , as an advisor to the expeditionary army. Wu was able to meet with many of the Korean literati. In 1598, he met with Heo Gyun, one of the leading scholars of the Joseon kingdom. Heo composed a poem in Wu's honour, in which he celebrated the common brotherhood of men despite their nationalities. On his second tour of Korea, Wu Mingqi made a concerted effort to collect the works of Korean poets.

The final work Wu produced was the ''Chaoxian shi xuan'' , the first Chinese anthology of Korean poetry. It included 340 poems by 112 Korean poets from the Silla period onwards, and was divided into seven parts according to genre. The ''Chaoxian shi xuan'' became subject of scholarly interest in the 17th century, when it was catalogued by bibliographers. The scholar Qian Qianyi incorporated a dozen poems from Wu's collection into his ''Li dai shi ji'' , as did Zhu Yizun into his ''Ming shi zong'' .

Wu also penned a short history of Goryeo entitled ''Gaoli shi ji'' .