Zou Yan


Zou Yan was an ancient Chinese philosopher best known as the representative thinker of the Yin and Yang School during the Hundred Schools of Thought era in Chinese philosophy.

Biography

Zou Yan was a noted scholar of the Jixia Academy in the state of Qi. Joseph Needham, a British sinologist, describes Zou as "The real founder of all Chinese scientific thought." His teachings combined and systematized two current theories during the Warring States period: Yin-Yang and the Five Elements/Phases.
All of Zou Yan's writings have been lost and are only known through quotations in early Chinese texts. The best information comes from his brief biography in the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian. It describes him as a polymath who came from the coastal state of Qi, where he was a member of the state-sponsored Jixia Academy. Needham writes:
Zou Yan is commonly associated with Daoism and the origins of Chinese alchemy, going back to the Book of Han that calls him a fangshi. Holmes Welch proposes the fangshi were among those whom Sima Qian described as "unable to practice" Zou Yan's arts, and says while Zou "gradually acquired alchemistical stature, he himself knew nothing of the art. It was probably developed by those of his followers who became interested in physical experimentation with the Five Elements."