Yuan Liaofan

(c. 1533 - c. 1606)

Yuan Liofan was born Yuan Huang in 1533 to a wealthy landowning family of physicians in Zhejiang. For several generations his family had been barred from sitting the imperial examinations for remaining loyal to a former emperor. Yuan was the first in his family to be allowed to sit the examination again; he abandoned his medical studies and turned to the Confucian classics. His most famous work is his Four Lessons, which he wrote to teach his son the importance of good deeds and kindness, which would be rewarded with good exam results.

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