Research On Yan Xunguan

Yan Xunguan(1724--1768),born in a traditional literary family,was a famous Confucianism scholar from Shandong province.At that time,China was governed by Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty.Taken Teng Gang as his teacher,Yan Xunguan kept good relationship with Fa Kunhong and Han Mengzhou.They were called “the greatest three Confucianism scholars of Shandong”.Yan Xunguan's academic thoughts centered on Neo-confucianism.He had made contribution in literature,confucian classics and other fields.Yan Xunguan's teaching in Mountain Chengfu exerted profound impact on the young generation.Although died at an early age,Yan Xunguna was still valued by academia at that time.His life-story can be found in Draft of Qing Dynasty,Biographies in the Qing Dynasty,Files of scholars in Qing Dynasty etc.In the aspect of literature,Yan Xunguan emulated Fang Bao of Tongcheng school privately and followed the example of Han Yu,Zeng Gong,Gui Youguang and so on.He approved the idea of “writing delivering ethics”.His articles were simple and unsophisticated,yet concealing deep intense emotion and rigorous logic system.“Without abundant cultural foundation,he can't finish it,”said by renowned scholar Lu Wenchao.Yan's poems were filled with peace and quiet,which express concerns out of the bottom of his heart.Yan Xunguan's versed accomplishment could be know from Xijiancaotang Collected works.In the aspect of confucian classics,Yan Xunguan supported the idea of Neo-confucianism and criticized Yang Ming's learning of conscience,which was shown in Review of The Book of History,Attainments from Chunqiu and Kunmianzhai Diary which also concerned The Book of Changes and The book of Songs.Firstly,Yan Xunguan doubted the “Classic The Book of History”,researched the words and elaborated the meaning of the book.Some of Yan's ideas were creative,yet had a limited impact.Although having reservations,Yan used the three explanatory works of Chunqiu and viewpoints from Hu Anguo and Hao Jing to have an investigation.To sum up,Yan spared no effort illuminating principles of Confucianism.Not only being of importance in Shandong,Yan Xunguan also made a nationwide difference.It is benefit to conduct a research of academic history of Qing Dynasty according to discuss Yan's studying methods,life-story,friendship and so on.