Scholars › Historian
Chen Yuan
Self-taught Cantonese historian of religions and chronology who led Fu Jen Catholic University for over twenty years and then Beijing Normal University
In an archive hall, tall wooden shelves hold scrolls and bound books with small tags, and one person climbs a ladder with their back turned; a long table in front holds an unrolled river map, a bronze lamp and a copper jug, with a city wall seen through the window.
Also known as Zi Yuanan
- Roles
- Historian
Chen Yuan, courtesy name Yuan'an, came from Xinhui in Guangdong, was born in 1880, failed the civil examinations and worked in journalism and medicine in Canton. Elected to the national assembly in 1913, he moved to Beijing and turned to history, starting with studies of foreign religions in China such as his essay on the Nestorian Christians of the Yuan. He ran Fu Jen Catholic University in Beijing from 1926, becoming its president in 1929, and after the reorganisation of universities in 1952 headed Beijing Normal University until his death. His works include a study of the sinicisation of Western Region peoples under the Yuan, tables of new moons and intercalary months for twenty dynastic histories, a guide to taboo characters, a history of Buddhism in late Ming Yunnan and Guizhou, and a study of Hu Sanxing's commentary on the Comprehensive Mirror. He died in Beijing in June 1971; Yan Gengwang named him with Chen Yinke, Lu Simian and Qian Mu as one of the four great modern historians.
Life and times
Dates 1880 CE–1971 CE