This is the article about Late Imperial period of China. For Yan Yuan, the disciple of Confucius, see Yan Hui.
Yan Yuan (Chinese: 颜元; pinyin: Yán Yuán; Wade–Giles: Yen Yuan;(1635 - 1704), zi Yizhi or Hunran, hao Xizhai(Chinese: 习斋; pinyin: Xízhāi; Wade–Giles: Hsi-chai) founded a practical school of Confucianism to contrast with the more ethereal Neo-Confucianism that had been popular in China for the previous six centuries.
He was born on April 27, 1635 in the Chihli province (now called Hebei) in China and spent his youth in poverty, after his father was taken into the Manchu army and never returned.
He died on September 30, 1704 in the same province.
Ideas of Yan Yuan were developed by his disciple Li Gong zh:李塨 (Yan-Li school). Yan's intellectual heritage was addressed by Wu Han in the 20th c. Wu has elaborated on the Yan's concept of relation between history and the present.