Enlightenment thinker, politician and writer in Qing Dynasty, a juren in the second year of Daoguang (1822) and a scholar in the twenty-fifth year of Daoguang (1845). Guan Gaoyou knew the state, abandoned his official position and retired in his later years, devoted himself to Buddhism and passed on his dharma name. He is the representative of the first batch of intellectuals in modern China who "opened their eyes to see the world".
Wei Yuan believed that the purpose of learning should be "to apply what he has learned", and put forward the idea of "turning decay into magic and facilitating people", and advocated learning advanced western science and technology. And put forward the idea of "learning from foreigners to control foreigners", which opened a new trend of understanding the world and learning from the West, and was an important symbol of China's thought from tradition to modern times. These thoughts not only had progressive significance at that time, but also played a positive role in promoting the later bourgeois reform and reform movement.
Personality assessment
Song Shu (Enlightenment Thinker): Some people write foreign history books, such as Atlas of the Sea Countries, A Brief Introduction to Ying Huan, Chronology of the Four Dynasties, etc. , are all poorly titled. It will make outsiders laugh that my scholar is a well frog, which is a disgrace to the country.
Biography of Wei Yuan (Summer): Throughout Wei Yuan's life, he has changed from a Neo-Confucianism scholar to a Sinologist, from a screen friend to a people-friendly official, from a Confucian scholar who interprets classics and poems to a doer who cares about water conservancy salt tanks, from a scholar who cares about the times and people to a pioneer who looks at the world. All this fully shows that he is a sincere patriot. Stimulated by the defeat of the Opium War, he always wanted to wash away the national humiliation and put forward the idea of "being the former king of Julian Waghann" and "learning from foreigners to control foreigners".
Reference to the above content: Baidu Encyclopedia-Wei Yuan