Cui Yuan (; 77–142 or 78–143 AD),Crespigny (2007), 103.

courtesy name A courtesy name ( zh, s=字, p=zì, l=character), also known as a style name, is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name. This tradition is prevalent in the East Asian cultural sphere, particula ...

Ziyu, Chinese calligrapher, mathematician, philosopher, poet, and politician during the Eastern Han dynasty. He was a temporary fugitive who was also known for his many written works, although in political life he became involved in court intrigues which damaged his career.

Life

Cui Yuan was born in the

Lecheng Commandery Xindu Commandery () was a historical commandery of China, located in modern southern Hebei. The commandery was created in early Western Han dynasty. In 155 BC, the territory was granted to Liu Pengzu (劉彭祖), son of the Emperor Jing, as the P ...

(renamed Anping in 122) in what is now modern

Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

province.Translated selections of Chen Shou's '' Records of the Three States'' (1999), 204. He was the son of Cui Yin, who died while Yuan was in his teens. After years of study, he ventured to the Han capital at

Luoyang Luoyang ( zh, s=洛阳, t=洛陽, p=Luòyáng) is a city located in the confluence area of the Luo River and the Yellow River in the west of Henan province, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zheng ...

when he was eighteen. There he studied under Jia Kui and befriended notable persons such as the poet and politician

Ma Rong Ma Rong (; 79–166), courtesy name Jichang (), was a Chinese essayist, poet, and politician of the Eastern Han dynasty. He was born in Youfufeng () in the former Han capital region, in modern Xianyang, Shaanxi Province. His father Ma Yan (馬 ...

(79–166) and the polymathic scientist

Zhang Heng Zhang Heng (; AD 78–139), formerly romanization of Chinese, romanized Chang Heng, was a Chinese polymathic scientist and statesman who lived during the Han dynasty#Eastern Han (25–220 AD), Eastern Han dynasty. Educated in the capital citi ...

(78–139). Cui gained a reputation as a

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

with his work on reforming the

Chinese calendar The traditional Chinese calendar, dating back to the Han dynasty, is a lunisolar calendar that blends solar, lunar, and other cycles for social and agricultural purposes. While modern China primarily uses the Gregorian calendar for officia ...

and as a scholar following his commentary on the ''

I Ching The ''I Ching'' or ''Yijing'' ( ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. The ''I Ching'' was originally a divination manual in ...

''.

Notes

References

*Chen, Shou (1999). ''Empresses and Consorts: Selections from Chen Shou's Records of the Three States with Pei Songzhi's Commentary''. Translated with annotations and introduction by Robert Joe Cutter and William Gordon Crowell. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. . *Crespigny, Rafe de. (2007). ''A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD)''. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill. . 143 deaths 1st-century Chinese calligraphers 2nd-century Chinese poets 2nd-century Chinese calligraphers 2nd-century Chinese mathematicians Chinese non-fiction writers Cui clan of Boling 2nd-century Chinese philosophers Han dynasty government officials Han dynasty writers from Hebei Mathematicians from Hebei Poets from Hebei Politicians from Hengshui Year of birth uncertain {{China-poet-stub