Chen Hongmou

In this Chinese name, the family name is Chen.

Chen Hongmou (simplified Chinese: 陈宏谋; traditional Chinese: 陳宏謀; pinyin: Chén Hóngmóu; Wade–Giles: Ch'en Hungmou, October 10, 1696 – July 14, 1771), courtesy name Ruzi (汝咨) and Rongmen (榕門), was a Chinese official, scholar, and philosopher, who is widely regarded as a model official of the Qing dynasty.

Chen Hongmou
Grand Secretary of the Eastern Library
In office 1767–1771
Assistant Grand Secretary
In office 1764–1767
Minister of Personnel
In office July 26, 1763 – April 15, 1767 Serving with Fusen (until 1765), Tondo (since 1765)
Preceded by	Liang Shizheng
Succeeded by	Liu Lun
Minister of War
In office June 28 – July 26, 1763 Serving with Arigūn
Preceded by	Liu Lun
Succeeded by	Peng Qifeng
Viceroy of Liangguang
In office January 14 – May 27, 1758
Preceded by	Henian
Succeeded by	Li Shiyao
Governor of Fujian
In office 1752–1754
Preceded by	Pan Siju
Succeeded by	Zhongyin
Personal details
Born	(1696-10-10)October 10, 1696 Lingui County, Guilin, Guangxi, China
Died	July 14, 1771(1771-07-14) (aged 74) Yanzhou, Shandong, China

Early life

Chen was born in Lingui, Guangxi, to a family who migrated from Chenzhou in Hunan province in the late Ming dynasty. He was noted for the longest total service and most provincial posts than any other official during the Qing dynasty. In their work Anthology of Qing Statecraft Writings, He Changling and Wei Yuan praised him as an exemplary official, being surpassed only by Gu Yanwu.

Career

Chen considered himself a disciple of Zhu Xi, but condemned various types of intellectual partisanship. His essays were very progressive for his time – in his vigorous advocation of education for people everywhere, he was one of the first philosophers to clearly state the idea that women and non-Chinese tribes could, and should, receive the same education as Han Chinese men.

Together with Gu Yanwu, He Changling, and Wei Yuan (mentioned above) he belongs to the "statecraft school" of the Chinese thought: its proponents advocated accommodation of the local administration to the changing social realities.

Further reading

• Rowe, William T. (2001). Saving the World: Chen Hongmou and Elite Consciousness in Eighteenth-Century China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-3735-5.
• Hummel, Arthur W. Sr., ed. (1943). "Ch'ên Hung-mou" . Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. United States Government Printing Office.