Ch'en Yin-k'o's work on intellectual history can basically be discussed from two different angles. In the first place, his historical research of the late years had already shifted its focal point of interest from institutional culture to intellectual history. Secondly, his great biographical works on important women such as Ch'en Jui-shen, Meng Li-ju and Liu Ju-shih, can also be considered to reflect a similar shift of attention by the author in the later years of his life.