Chen Yuan (陳垣 1880–1971) was a Chinese historian and educator. Chen, together with

Lü Simian Lü Simian (; February 27, 1884 – October 9, 1957) was a Chinese historian. He was a former professor and history department head at Kwang Hua University, a predecessor of the East China Normal University in Shanghai. Lü took the courtes ...

Chen Yinke Chen Yinke, or Chen Yinque (3 July 18907 October 1969), was a Chinese historian, linguist, orientalist, politician, and writer. He was a fellow of Academia Sinica, considered one of the most original and creative historians in 20th century China ...

and

Ch'ien Mu Ch'ien Mu or Qian Mu (; 30 July 1895 – 30 August 1990) was a Chinese historian, philosopher and writer. He is considered to be one of the greatest historians and philosophers of 20th-century China. Ch'ien, together with Lü Simian, Chen Yink ...

, was known as the "Four Greatest Historians" of Modern China (現代四大史學家). He is known by his work in the fields of

religious history The history of religion refers to the written record of human religious feelings, thoughts, and ideas. This period of religious history begins with the invention of writing about 5,200 years ago (3200 BC). The prehistory of religion involves th ...

Yuan Dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...

history,

textology Text linguistics is a branch of linguistics that deals with texts as communication systems. Its original aims lay in uncovering and describing text grammars. The application of text linguistics has, however, evolved from this approach to a point in ...

and textual criticism. Chen was professor of

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...

Beijing Normal University Beijing Normal University (BNU, ), colloquially known as Beishida (), is a public research university located in Beijing, China, with a strong emphasis on humanities and sciences. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China ...

and

Fu Jen Catholic University Fu Jen Catholic University (FJU, FJCU or Fu Jen; or ) is a private Catholic university in Xinzhuang, New Taipei City, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1925 in Beijing at the request of Pope Pius XI and re-established in Taiwan in 1961 at ...

, and later served as the president of Beijing Normal University. Before 1949, he also served as the president of Metropolitan Library and the

Palace Museum The Palace Museum () is a huge national museum complex housed in the Forbidden City at the core of Beijing, China. With , the museum inherited the imperial royal palaces from the Ming and Qing dynasties of China and opened to the public in 192 ...

library. From 1917, Chen began to work on history of Christianity in China, and later published his name-earning book ''Research of Arkaguns in Yuan Dynasty'' (). Arkagun is the name given to Christians in

. Subsequently, he published several books about the spreading of

Manichaeism Manichaeism (; in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian Empire, Parthian ...

Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion and one of the world's History of religion, oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian peoples, Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a Dualism in cosmology, du ...

and

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

in China. Chen also paid great attention to collation work on

Code of Yuan Dynasty In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter (alphabet), letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes data compression, shortened or secrecy, secret ...

().《中国大百科全书》总编委会编. 中国大百科全书 3. 北京市：中国大百科全书出版社, 2009.03. . p.434 He has also published various works on

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

, especially about Qing Dynasty period.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Yuan 1880 births 1971 deaths 20th-century Chinese historians Beijing Normal University faculty Chinese scholars of Buddhism Chinese historians of religion Educators from Guangdong Fu Jen Catholic University faculty Historians from Guangdong Members of Academia Sinica Republic of China historians Republic of China journalists People from Xinhui District People's Republic of China historians Presidents of Beijing Normal University Writers from Jiangmen