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 goes beyond his own intellectual propensity and does not set aside all the partisans of Song studies. Thus, he contributes to the harmonisation of Song and Han studies. He also pays particular attention to the Xiaojing, the Classic of Filial Piety and gives original interpretations of some key notions of Confucianism like sense of humanity (ren). In this paper, I try to describe Yuan Ruan's role in the transmission of Classical texts in the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries