View source for Ding Yan

{{family name hatnote|[[Ding (surname)|Ding/Ting]]|lang=Chinese}}
[[File:丁晏.jpg|thumb|upright|Ding Yan's portrait in ''Illustrated Biographies of Qing Dynasty Scholars'' ([[:zh:清代學者象傳|清代學者象傳]].]]
'''Ding Yan''' ({{zh|c=丁晏|w='''Ting Yen'''}}; 1794–1875) was a [[Qing dynasty]] Chinese classical scholar. He achieved the rank of ''juren'' in the [[Imperial Examinations]].
Ding was born in Shanyang (present-day [[Huai'an District|Huai'an]]), [[Jiangsu]] province. Although not awarded an official post, he was an important figure in the defense of Shanyang from the British in 1842, during the [[First Opium War]]. He also helped to rebuild the city's walls after the attack. As a result, he was appointed secretary of the [[Grand Secretariat]] in 1843.<ref name=WDL>{{cite web |url={{wdl|4690}} |author=Ding, Yan |date=1862 |title=Collected Poems of Yizhizhai Studio |work=World Digital Library |language=Chinese |accessdate=28 May 2013}}</ref>
The following decade, Ding again organised a militia to defend the city from the [[Taipeng Rebellion]]. However, he was accused of incompetence, and was banished. This ruling was later overturned, and he was given responsibility for civilian military training, eventually reaching the second rank.<ref name=WDL/> His sons Shou-ch'ang and Shou-ch'i also served in public office.<ref name="Bedini1994">{{cite book|author=Silvio A. Bedini|title=The trail of time|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xdVkzs6iI1YC&pg=PA118|accessdate=28 May 2013|year=1994|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-37482-8|pages=118}}</ref>
Despite his military accomplishments, Ding was best known as a scholar of the Classics. His ''Shang shu yu lun'' made the case for the forgery of the ''[[Shu ching]]'', and he made many key arguments in favour of [[Wu Cheng'en]] being the original author of the Buddhist classic ''[[Journey to the West]]''.<ref name="Kramers1950">{{cite book|author=Robert Paul Kramers|title=The School Sayings of Confucius: Introduction, Translation of Sections 1 - 10 with Critical Notes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XgwVAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA155|accessdate=28 May 2013|year=1950|publisher=Brill Archive|pages=155|id=GGKEY:6Q6ETEH2AHT}}</ref><ref name="Yu1980">{{cite book|author=Anthony C. Yu|title=Journey to the West|url=https://archive.org/details/journeytowest00wuch|url-access=registration|accessdate=28 May 2013|date=15 February 1980|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-97150-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/journeytowest00wuch/page/17 17]}}</ref> He authored over fifty books on scholarly subjects, and was the director of two literary academies.<ref name="Bedini1994"/> Many of his works were compiled and published in 1862 as the ''Yi zhi zhai cong shu'' (Collected works of Yizhizhai Studio).<ref name=WDL/>
==References==
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==Further reading==
*{{cite ECCP|title=Ting Yen}}
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[[Category:Chinese scholars]]
[[Category:1794 births]]
[[Category:1875 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Huai'an]]
[[Category:Chinese printers]]
[[Category:Historians from Jiangsu]]
[[Category:19th-century Chinese historians]]