Background
Yin Shidan was born in Licheng, Jinan into a poor family.
殷士儋
government official literary scholar
Yin Shidan was born in Licheng, Jinan into a poor family.
He was dismissed from government in 1571. Yin Shidan is buried there in the Yinjialin Village (Yin Jia Lin Cun, to the southwest of Jinan), where some of his descendants still live. His tomb was damaged during the Cultural Revolution, but the tomb mound still remains.
He took the Imperial examination in 1547 and eventually became a member of the Grand Secretariat, de facto the highest institution in the Ming imperial government.