Cui Yuan (; 77–142 or 78–143 AD),Crespigny (2007), 103.

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...

Ziyu, Chinese calligrapher, mathematician, philosopher, poet, and politician during the Eastern Han dynasty. He was a temporary fugitive who was also known for his many written works, although in political life he became involved in court intrigues which damaged his career.

Life

Cui Yuan was born in the Lecheng Commandery (renamed Anping in 122) in what is now modern

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

province.Translated selections of Chen Shou's '' Records of the Three States'' (1999), 204. He was the son of Cui Yin, who died while Yuan was in his teens. After years of study, he ventured to the Han capital at

Luoyang Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River (Henan), Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the ...

when he was eighteen. There he studied under Jia Kui and befriended notable persons such as the poet and politician Ma Rong (79–166) and the polymathic scientist

Zhang Heng Zhang Heng (; AD 78–139), formerly romanized as Chang Heng, was a Chinese polymathic scientist and statesman who lived during the Han dynasty. Educated in the capital cities of Luoyang and Chang'an, he achieved success as an astronomer, ma ...

(78–139). Cui gained a reputation as a

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

with his work on reforming the

Chinese calendar The traditional Chinese calendar (also known as the Agricultural Calendar ��曆; 农历; ''Nónglì''; 'farming calendar' Former Calendar ��曆; 旧历; ''Jiùlì'' Traditional Calendar ��曆; 老历; ''Lǎolì'', is a lunisolar calendar ...

and as a scholar following his commentary on the ''

I Ching The ''I Ching'' or ''Yi Jing'' (, ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. Originally a divination manual in the Western Zho ...

''.

Notes

References

*Chen, Shou (1999). ''Empresses and Consorts: Selections from Chen Shou's Records of the Three States with Pei Songzhi's Commentary''. Translated with annotations and introduction by Robert Joe Cutter and William Gordon Crowell. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. . *Crespigny, Rafe de. (2007). ''A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD)''. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill. . 143 deaths 1st-century Chinese calligraphers 2nd-century Chinese poets 2nd-century Chinese calligraphers Ancient Chinese mathematicians Chinese non-fiction writers Cui clan of Boling Han dynasty calligraphers Han dynasty philosophers Han dynasty poets Han dynasty politicians from Hebei Han dynasty writers from Hebei Mathematicians from Hebei Poets from Hebei Politicians from Hengshui Year of birth uncertain {{China-poet-stub