Career
He was a native of southern Henan. After diligent study of the classics during his childhood and youth, Gan Bao was appointed head of Office of History at the court. Apparently the position was granted to him in recognition of his skills which he demonstrated in his Chinese-chi, presumably a written account of earlier court activities.
Gan Bao subsequently occupied other prominent positions at the court, but today he is best remembered for the book In Search of the Supernatural: The Written Record (Sou-shen Chi), which he probably compiled.
An extremely important early example of the Zhiguai genre, the book comprises several hundred short stories and witness reports about spirits and supernatural events.
