The "Book of Swindles" is the only known work to appear under his name, and no record of him survives in any biographical source. Zhang lived during the Wanli period (1563–1620) of the Ming dynasty. A note on the title page of one Ming dynasty copy claims that he was from Zhejiang province, while a 1617 preface says that he was from Fujian. The "Book of Swindles" incorporates elements from a variety of other Chinese genres, especially court case fiction, in which a capable magistrate solves a crime. Stories involving sorcerers, Buddhist monks, and Daoist priests, who engage in alchemy or dream spirit possession, include motifs from supernatural tales. Other stories, featuring suspense, surprise and revelation, resemble jokes in structure. A minority include apocryphal anecdotes about historical figures. Zhang draws on stock scenarios and character types from vernacular fiction and drama, such as the charlatan Daoist, the duplicitous broker, and the foolish scion of a rich family. Dropped bags, ingenious thievery, and imposture also appear in fiction by contemporaries such as Feng Menglong (1574–1645), Ling Mengchu (1580–1644), and Li Yu (1610–80). Venal monks and eunuchs, lying procuresses and go-betweens appear in a wide array of vernacular literature, including contemporary novels such as "The Water Margin" ("Shui hu zhuan", first extant imprint 1589) and "Plum in the Golden Vase" ("Jin ping mei", first extant imprint 1610). Collections of swindle stories can also be found in contemporary China. "The Book of Swindles" also appeared around the same time as the seventeenth-century heyday of the Spanish picaresque novel, which often features rogues, tricksters, delusive figures, and swindlers roaming the lands in search of opportunity or fortune. Contemporaneous Spanish works include El Buscon (The Swindler) and Don Quixote. The theme, structure, and spirit of Zhang Yingyu's work also resemble that of swindle story collections from Europe and America, such as Richard King's "The New Cheats of London Exposed" (ca. 1790) and James Perry Johnston's "How to Hustle" (1905). Elaborate scams detailed in the "Corruption in Education" section of "The Book of Swindles" also anticipate "big cons" of early twentieth-century con men such as "The Big Store," as described by sociolinguist David Maurer in "The Big Con".