Yao Nai (姚鼐,

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

: Yáo Nài; 1731–1815) was a scholar of the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

. Born in Tongcheng (),

Anhui Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...

province, Yao Nai achieved the degree of Jinshi in 1763, and was appointed to the

Hanlin Academy The Hanlin Academy was an academic and administrative institution of higher learning founded in the 8th century Tang China by Emperor Xuanzong in Chang'an. It has also been translated as "College of Literature" and "Academy of the Forest of Pen ...

(). Later, he worked as official of several central administrative departments. Yao Nai was famous of his classical works () and considered as a main figure of Tongcheng School.

Historian

Yao Nai was the first to point out the numerological outlay as a stylistic feature of the Warring States texts. Considering abundance of such features in the Yizhoushu, he expressed doubts in authenticity of this corpus, since the repetitiveness of such textual presentation did not agree with his perception of the "former kings' wisdom".

References

*''Draft History of Qing'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yao Nai 1731 births 1815 deaths 18th-century Chinese philosophers Qing dynasty writers Writers from Anhui Mathematicians from Anhui People from Tongling Philosophers from Anhui