Wei Yuan

Life

His father was 魏邦魯, his grandfather 魏志順, and his great-grandfather 魏大公. In 1822 he passed the Shuntian provincial examination and became a juren. The Daoguang Emperor praised his examination paper; after failing the metropolitan examination, he entered the Grand Secretariat by purchase. The year in which he obtained the jinshi degree is variously given as the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth year of the Daoguang era; the latter, an yi-si year, corresponds to 1845, when he ranked 93rd in the third class.

Wei Yuan was well versed in the institutions and history of the state, studied the Gongyang Chunqiu under Liu Fenglu, and was also a student of Zhuang Cunyu. He was ranked alongside Gong Zizhen and associated with Xu Song, Zhang Mu, and Chen Li. After obtaining the jinshi degree, he was assigned to Jiangsu as a prefect, served provisionally at Xinghua, then held the post of Xinghua magistrate and, in the first year of the Xianfeng era, became prefect of Gaoyou.

He joined the staffs of Tao Shu and others, assisting with major policies concerning grain transport, salt administration, and river works. During a major flood at Xinghua in the twenty-eighth year of the Daoguang era, he opposed the river commander’s plan to open the sluices; when his objections failed, he personally beat a drum at the governor’s office. Governor Lu Jianying hurried to investigate, the danger was averted, and the local people expressed their gratitude.

During the First Opium War (1840–1841), Wei Yuan served in Yu Qian’s military staff and compiled the 《英吉利小志》 from the testimony of British prisoners; in July 1841 he met Lin Zexu at Zhenjiang and discussed current affairs and possible responses. In January 1843 he produced a fifty-volume 《海國圖志》 based on newspapers translated by Lin Zexu in Guangzhou and on the 《四洲志》, while spending long periods at the Xiaojuan’a residence in Nanjing. In 1847 he travelled to Guangzhou, Macao, and Hong Kong, visited Chen Li, met a Portuguese official, and acquired books from various countries, expanding the 《海國圖志》 to sixty volumes; in 1853 he drew on newly published Western works, including Madishi’s 《地理備考》, to continue it to one hundred volumes.

In his later years he left office, retired to Hangzhou, and devoted himself to Buddhism and writing. In the fourth year of the Xianfeng era he compiled the 《淨土四經》 at Xinghua, and he died in Hangzhou.

Scholarship

Wei Yuan took the practical application of learning to state affairs as his guiding principle, was well versed in the institutions and history of the state, and studied the 《公羊春秋》 under Liu Fenglu; his scholarly work extended across classical studies, history, and geography. His classical works include 《兩漢經師今古文家法考》, 《公羊古微》, 《公羊微》, 《詩古微》, 《書古微》, 《春秋繁露注》, and 《董子春秋發微》; he also wrote 《明代食兵二政錄》 and 《皇朝經世文編》.

Works and influence

His major works include the one-hundred-volume 《海國圖志》, the fourteen-volume 《聖武記》, the ninety-five-volume 《元史新編》, 《老子本義》, the sixteen-volume 《古微堂詩文集》, the ten-volume 《古微堂詩集》, and the twenty-volume 《清夜齋文集》. He advanced the proposition “learn from the strengths of the barbarians in order to control the barbarians,” and is regarded as an advocate of new thought in the late Qing and as one of modern China’s writers who “opened their eyes to the world.” A biography of him appears in the 《清史稿》.