Background
Yan, Fu was born in 1854 in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China.
Yan, Fu was born in 1854 in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China.
Studied at School of Navigation, Majiang Naval Academy, Fuzhou: Greenwich Naval College (1877 9).
After training in English at Naval College in Fuzhou, Yen was sent to Greenwich Naval College in England, where he supplemented his naval studies with readings in sociology, economics, politics and philosophy to discover the source of Western power. Under Spencer’s influence, he argued that Social Darwinism provided the best framework for understanding Western strength and for shaping Chinese policy to achieve the wealth and power needed to overcome foreign dominance. Although he saw democratic politics as necessary to his programme, his evolutionary perspective led to extreme caution in moving away from China's despotic political tradition. He proposed that a first stage of political reform should be under the guidance of an educated elite. Although he attacked conservatives who thought that no change was necessary, he believed that the Chinese population was not ready to exercise democratic rights and that premature reform would lead only to chaos. He criticized the reformers Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, the revolutionary Sun Zhonghan and the May Fourth Movement. With some misgivings, he supported Yuan Shikai, who appointed him to become Chancellor of the University of Beijing and allowed his name to be used in Yuan’s attempt to become Emperor. He had previously supported the proposal to make Confucianism the state religion, and at the end of his life he rejected Westernization in favour of a return to Chinese traditions. In his earlier and more optimistic stage, Yan considered education to be at the heart of a programme to strengthen China. He translated a series of important Western works into Chinese. He accompanied the translations, written in a pure classical style, with extensive notes and commentaries pointing out the relevance of each text for Chinese circumstances. His enthusiasm for Spencer led him to see the individualism of Mill's On Liberty and Smith’s Wealth of Nations mainly as a means of advancement in the struggle for existence. In writing for a Chinese audience, Yan drew comparisons between the Western writers and familiar Chinese texts. He thus made the authors more intelligible and more acceptable. His interest in logic derived from his assessment that the discipline was the foundation of Western knowledge, a view perhaps encouraged by the lack of a formal logic tradition in China. Yan’s translations and commentaries were immensely popular and influential in China. Figures as diverse as Liang Qichao, Lu Xun. Hu Shi and Mao Zedong acknowledged his influence. More than anyone, he promoted the attractions of Western learning based on clear, intelligible and stylish translations. Although his period as Chancellor of the University of Beijing is perhaps undervalued, his achievements were overshadowed by those of his brilliant successor Cai Yuanbei.