Xu Xiake
The appearance of "Yu Chu Xin Zhi" is the product of the times. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, people's living standards reached a relatively high level and as a result, they demanded more popular books. After the fall of the Ming dynasty, innovators of the landlord class and the new public sectors converged. Western culture was introduced to China and cultural communication began at that time. Moreover, people were fond of hunting for novelty, which was reflected in Zhang Chao's works. Apart from that, the copncept of fiction in that period laid particular stress on the sense of reality. Zhang Chao selected more than 150 works, including the "Biography of Xu Xiake" (), written by Wang Siren (), "Biography of Liu Jingting" (), written by Wu Weiye (), etc. The book was full of the editor himself's expectancy of a fair and peaceful world.