Yan Yuan (; 1635 - 1704),

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 Theob ...

Yizhi or Hunran,

art name An art name (pseudonym or pen name), also known by its native names ''hào'' (in Mandarin), ''gō'' (in Japanese), ''ho'' (in Korean), and ''tên hiệu'' (in Vietnamese), is a professional name used by East Asian artists, poets and writers. The ...

Xizhai () was a Chinese classicist, essayist, and philosopher. He founded the practical school of

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or a ...

to contrast with the more ethereal

Neo-Confucianism Neo-Confucianism (, often shortened to ''lǐxué'' 理學, literally "School of Principle") is a moral, ethical, and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, and originated with Han Yu (768–824) and Li Ao (772–841) in t ...

that had been popular in China for the previous six centuries. Like the

Han learning Han learning (), or the Han school of classical philology, was an intellectual movement that reached its height in the middle of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) in China. The focus of the movement was to reject neo-Confucianism in order to return ...

scholars, he rejected the abstract metaphysics of the Neo-Confucians. However, he considered Han learning as too obsessed with philology and textual criticism and not enough emphasis on pragmatism. His school promoted the

Six Arts The Six Arts formed the basis of education in ancient Chinese culture. These were made and practiced by the Confucians. History During the Zhou dynasty (1122–256 BCE), students were required to master the "liù yì" (六藝) (''Six Arts''): * R ...

. He was born on April 27, 1635, in the Zhili province (now called

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, and 0 ...

) in China and spent his youth in poverty, after his father was taken into the Qing army and never returned. He died on September 30, 1704, in the same province. The ideas of Yan Yuan were developed by his disciple Li Gong :zh:李塨 (Yan-Li school). Yan's intellectual heritage was addressed by Wu Han in the 20th century. Wu elaborated on the Yan's concept of the relation between history and the present.

References

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from

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Bibliography

* Chan, Wing-tsit (trans.), 1963, ''A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy'', Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. * 1704 deaths 1635 births 17th-century Chinese historians 17th-century Chinese philosophers Chinese Confucianists Philosophers from Hebei Qing dynasty classicists Qing dynasty essayists Qing dynasty philosophers Writers from Baoding {{China-philosopher-stub

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