Ruan Yuan (1764-1849) and the Transmission of Classical Texts between the 18th and 19th Centuries

Ruan Yuan, a Chinese contemporary of Tasan, was the last of the high officials who advocated Han studies in the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods. As a patron of scholarship at his time, he went beyond his own intellectual propensities and did not set aside all partisans of Song studies. He thus contributed to the harmonisation of Song and Han studies. He also paid particular attention to the Xiaojing, the Classic of Filial Piety and gave original interpretations of some key notions of Confucianism like the sense of humanity (ren). This paper attempts to describe Yuan Ruan’s role in the transmission of classical texts in the turn of the 18 and 19 centuries.