Ruan Yuan (; 1764–1849), courtesy name Yuntai (云台), was a Chinese historian, politician, and writer of the
Qing Dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
who was the most prominent Chinese scholar during the first half of the 19th century. He won the ''jinshi'' degree in the
imperial examination
The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...
s in 1789 and was subsequently appointed to the
Hanlin Academy
The Hanlin Academy was an academic and administrative institution of higher learning founded in the 8th century Tang China by Emperor Xuanzong in Chang'an.
Membership in the academy was confined to an elite group of scholars, who performed sec ...
. He was known for his work ''Biographies of Astronomers and Mathematicians'' and for his editing the '' Shisan Jing Zhushu'' (Commentaries and Notes on the Thirteen Classics) for the Qing emperor.
Ruan Yuan was a successful official as well as a scholar. He was the
Viceroy of Liangguang
The Viceroy of Liangguang or Viceroy of the Two Guangs, was one of eight regional Viceroys during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The two ''Guang'' referred to Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. The areas under the Viceroy's jurisdiction included pr ...
, the most important imperial official in Canton (
Guangzhou
Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...
), during the critical years 1817–1826, just before the
First Opium War
The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series of military engagements fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of the ...
with Britain. It was a crucial time when Chinese trade with the outside world was allowed only through the
Canton System
The Canton System (1757–1842; zh, t=一口通商, p=Yīkǒu tōngshāng, "Single orttrading relations") served as a means for Qing China to control trade with the West within its own country by focusing all trade on the southern port of C ...
, with all foreigners confined to Canton, the capital of
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
Province. During his tenure in Canton, Ruan is estimated to have earned more than 195,000
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 ...
tradition and as such, with the encouragement of
Liu Fenglu
/ ( or ) is an East Asian surname. pinyin: in Mandarin Chinese, in Cantonese. It is the family name of the Han dynasty emperors. The character originally meant 'kill', but is now used only as a surname. It is listed 252nd in the classic text ...
, he edited and organized publication of the compendium of the imperial achievements in ''kaozheng'' scholarship, the ''Huang Qing Jingjie'' ( 皇清经解) published in 1829.
Kong Luhua (relative of the
Duke Yansheng
The Duke Yansheng, literally "Honorable Overflowing with Wisdom", sometimes translated as Holy Duke of Yen, was a Chinese title of nobility. It was originally created as a marquis title in the Western Han dynasty for a direct descendant o ...