Ji Yun left behind a book entitled Notes of the Thatched Abode of Close Observations (閱微草堂筆記)[2] and another book named Wenda Gong Yiji (紀文達公遺集; "Collected Works of Lord Wenda", i.e. Ji Xiaolan), which was edited by later generations.

In 1747, Ji Yun rose to intellectual prominence after winning the highest distinction in the provincial examinations.

In 1768, he became an accessory in a bribery case after he tipped off a brother-in-law about the severity of charges pending against him, for which crime he was banished to Dihua in Ili (predecessor of Xinjiang Province).

During his later years, Ji Yun became one of the three great writers of strange tales in Qing dynasty China (the other two were Pu Songling and Yuan Mei).

His tales included "true" weird tales, investigations of paranormal phenomena, as well as horror stories, parables, accounts of strange natural phenomena, and satirical portraits of prominent Neo-Confucian scholars and government officials.

In addition, Ji Yun was also well known for the magnum opus of Qing editorial achievement, Siku quanshu (The Complete Library in Four Branches); he edited this massive work together with Lu Xixiong, in compliance with an imperial edict issued by the Qianlong Emperor.

[6] The mansion in which Ji Yun lived for the last thirty years of his life was originally the residence of General Yue Zhongqi (1686–1754), the twenth-first generational descendant of the renowned anti-Jurchen Jin, Song dynasty loyalist and general Yue Fei, who is one of the most renowned figures in Chinese history.

Ji Yun lived in the mansion for thirty years and several features of the dwelling that the visitor can still see today are associated with him.