In his early years, Ye Changchi studied at Zhengyi Academy founded by Feng Guifen, and helped compile "Suzhou Prefecture Chronicles". In 1889, he passed the examination and was awarded the title of editor of the Hanlin Academy. He went to Beijing to work in the National History Museum, Huidian Museum and other places.
He served as an academic administrator in Gansu from 1902 to 1906. He was dismissed in 1906 when the Qing Dynasty abolished the imperial examination and therefore abolished the academic official in charge of the imperial examination. Ye Changchi is knowledgeable and has written books such as "Yu Shi", "Yuan Du Lu Diary", "Book Collection Chronicle Poems", "Pang Xizhai Collection Secretary" and other books.
In the 32nd year of Guangxu (1908), the academic administration of all provinces was abolished. He did not want to be an official anymore, so he retired to his hometown and spent his life reading, writing, and collecting books. In his later years, he took the meaning of Zhuangzi's "No good deeds have a close name, Yuan Peng takes them as scriptures" and called himself "Master of Yuan Peng Lu". He is good at collation, and Qu's "Tieqin Tongjianlou Bibliography", Jiang's "Tiehuaguan Series" and Pan's "Gongshuntang Series" were all edited by him. Throughout his life, he visited bibliophiles all over the country and read the bibliographies of the collections of past dynasties. Starting from the 10th year of Guangxu (1884), it took seven years to compile 7 volumes of "Book Collection Chronicles and Poems". After seven years of revision, it was engraving and published by Jiang Biao in Changsha in the 23rd year of Guangxu (1897). It specially collects historical facts about bibliophiles from various generations and places, and writes a quatrain for each bibliophile to express his personal characteristics or his favorite collection. I searched for excerpts from official histories, local chronicles, notes, official and private records, ancient and modern anthologies, and unofficial histories. After Pan Zuyin saw the manuscript, he high-fived and praised it. The era started from the Five Dynasties to the end of the Qing Dynasty, including more than 400 bibliophiles and more than 290 appendices. This book is called the "Epic of Chinese Book Collections" and is also an anecdote of the bookstore. It can test the profound cultural traditions of our country and is of extremely high reference value for studying the history of libraries, Chinese book collections, and cultural history. Following this book, there are Yang Licheng's "A Survey of Chinese Bibliophiles", Wu Han's "A Brief History of Bibliophiles in Jiangsu and Zhejiang", Lunming's "Poems on Chronicles of Collecting Books since 1911", Mo Boji's "Supplement to Poems on Chronicles of Collecting Books", Wu Zeyu's " There are several works describing ancient and modern bibliophiles, such as "Xu's Poems on the Collection of Books" and Xu Xinfu's "Poems on the Chronicles of the Collection of Books in Guangdong". They all use this book as a model and pioneered the study of specialized bibliophiles. It has a rich collection of books, totaling more than 30,000 volumes. The collections include "Qiguguang", "Zhiyaoshi", "Yuanfenlu", "Wubaijingzhuanguan", "Xinjiuyi", "Mingzhe Jinglunlou", etc. . He has compiled the "Book Catalog of the Zhiyao Room" and the "Catalogue of the Collection of Five Hundred Classical Buildings", describing more than 1,000 kinds of fine books. He copied nearly a hundred kinds of books by hand. In order to copy "Shanghai County Chronicles", he once "stopped working in the morning and stopped at night, and his wrists almost fell off". He is proficient in epigraphy and has a considerable collection of epigraphs. He has traveled on foot to more than ten prefectures and counties including Pingliang, Zhangye, Dunhuang, Pizhou, Xining, Qinzhou, Jiuquan, Qingyang, Jingzhou, and Ningxia. He has seen ancient steles along the way. , all the old engravings were rubbed in person, and he also collected 31 pages of scriptures in Dunhuang and more than 10 rubbings on the Mogao Grottoes; therefore, his collection of stele tablets and scripture building antiquities have high cultural relic and documentary value.