Wei Yuan , born
Wei Yuanda (魏远达), courtesy names
Moshen (默深) and
Hanshi (汉士), was a
ChineseChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
scholar from
Shaoyang, HunanShaoyang is a prefecture-level city in Hunan province, People's Republic of China. Shaoyang is in the south west of Hunan, not far from Hengyang city.Shaoyang has a history of 2500 years and remains an important commercial and transportation city in Hunan...
. He moved to
YangzhouYangzhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu province, People's Republic of China...
in 1831, where he remained for the rest of his life. Wei obtained the provincial degree (
juren) in the Imperial examinations and subsequently worked in the secretariat of several prominent statesmen, such as
Lin ZexuLin Zexu Lin Zexu Lin Zexu ; (August 30, 1785 – November 22, 1850) was a Chinese scholar and official during the Qing dynasty....
. Wei was deeply concerned with the crisis facing China in the early 19th century; but, while he remained loyal to the
Qing DynastyThe Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, was the last ruling dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912...
, he also sketched a number of proposals for the improvement of the administration of the empire.
From an early age, Wei espoused the New Text school of
ConfucianismConfucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . It is a complex system of moral, social, political, philosophical, and quasi-religious thought that has had tremendous influence on the culture and history of East Asia...
and he also became a vocal member of the statecraft school, which advocated practical learning in opposition to the allegedly barren
evidentiary scholarshipHan Learning , or the Han school of classical philology, was an intellectual movement that reached its height in the mid-Qing dynasty in China.-Nature and origins:...
as represented by scholars like
Dai ZhenDai Zhen was a notable Chinese scholar of the Qing Dynasty from Xiuning, Anhui. A versatile scholar, he made great contributions to mathematics, geography, phonology and philosophy...
.
Wei Yuan , born
Wei Yuanda (魏远达), courtesy names
Moshen (默深) and
Hanshi (汉士), was a
ChineseChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
scholar from
Shaoyang, HunanShaoyang is a prefecture-level city in Hunan province, People's Republic of China. Shaoyang is in the south west of Hunan, not far from Hengyang city.Shaoyang has a history of 2500 years and remains an important commercial and transportation city in Hunan...
. He moved to
YangzhouYangzhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu province, People's Republic of China...
in 1831, where he remained for the rest of his life. Wei obtained the provincial degree (
juren) in the Imperial examinations and subsequently worked in the secretariat of several prominent statesmen, such as
Lin ZexuLin Zexu Lin Zexu Lin Zexu ; (August 30, 1785 – November 22, 1850) was a Chinese scholar and official during the Qing dynasty....
. Wei was deeply concerned with the crisis facing China in the early 19th century; but, while he remained loyal to the
Qing DynastyThe Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, was the last ruling dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912...
, he also sketched a number of proposals for the improvement of the administration of the empire.
From an early age, Wei espoused the New Text school of
ConfucianismConfucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . It is a complex system of moral, social, political, philosophical, and quasi-religious thought that has had tremendous influence on the culture and history of East Asia...
and he also became a vocal member of the statecraft school, which advocated practical learning in opposition to the allegedly barren
evidentiary scholarshipHan Learning , or the Han school of classical philology, was an intellectual movement that reached its height in the mid-Qing dynasty in China.-Nature and origins:...
as represented by scholars like
Dai ZhenDai Zhen was a notable Chinese scholar of the Qing Dynasty from Xiuning, Anhui. A versatile scholar, he made great contributions to mathematics, geography, phonology and philosophy...
. Among other things, Wei advocated sea transport of grain to the capital instead of using the
Grand CanalThe Grand Canal of China , also known as the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is the longest ancient canal or artificial river in the world. Starting at Beijing it passes through Tianjin and the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the city of Hangzhou...
and he also advocated a strengthening of the Qing Empire's frontier defense. In order to alleviate the demographic crisis in
China properChina proper refers to the historical lands of China where the Han Chinese are the majority ethnic group, in contrast with outer regions of China. Territories that have generally been considered outside China proper include Xinjiang , Tibet, part of Manchuria , and Inner Mongolia...
, Wei also spoke in favor of large scale emigration of
Han ChineseHan Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and, by most modern definitions, the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92 percent of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98 percent of the population of the Republic of China , 75 percent of the...
into
XinjiangXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
.
Later in his career he became increasingly concerned with the threat from the
Western powerThe Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context...
s and maritime defense.
Military history of the Qing Dynasty (聖武記,
Shèngwu Ji) and a narrative work on the Opium War (道光洋艘征撫記,
Daoguang Yangsou Zhengfu Ji ). Today, he is mostly known for his work from 1844,
Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms (海國圖志,
Haiguo Tuzhì), which consisted of Western material collected by Lin Zexu during and after the
First Opium WarThe First Opium War or the First Anglo-Chinese War was fought between the British East India Company and the Qing Dynasty of China from 1839 to 1842 with the aim of forcing China to allow free trade, particularly in opium...
.