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
Mural of the event “Punctuating the Twenty-Four Histories”, which this person took part in.
The Twenty-Four Histories are the twenty-four standard histories from the Shiji to the Mingshi. The main editions in which the whole set had been printed were the Wuying Hall edition of the Qianlong reign, the Jinling Press edition of the late Qing and the Baina edition assembled by the Commercial Press in 1936, but none carried punctuation or sentence breaks. In 1958 Zhonghua Book Company began organising scholars from across the country to punctuate and collate the Twenty-Four Histories and the Draft History of Qing. In 1959 the punctuated Shiji, prepared under Gu Jiegang, was published; the other histories followed, and with the Songshi in 1978 the work was complete, after twenty years. The set became known as the 'green-cover edition'; those involved included scholars such as Gu Jiegang and Chen Yuan and editors such as Song Yunbin and Zhao Shouyan. A revision of the edition began in 2006.
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
- 1880 CEBorn
Qing
Republican Era
Modern Era - 1958Punctuating the Twenty-Four Histories
Took partage 78In 1958 Zhonghua Book Company began organising scholars to punctuate and collate the Twenty-Four Histories and the Draft History of Qing; the punctuated Shiji appeared in 1959 and the Songshi in 1978, completing the set after twenty years. - 1971 CEDied
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