Yan Fu - A Famous Chinese Scholar and Translator Yan Fu (严复; 8
January 1854 — 27 October 1921) was a Chinese scholar and
translator, most famous for introducing western ideas, including
Darwin's "natural selection," to China in the late 19th century.
Yan Fu studied at the Fujian Arsenal Academy in Fuzhou, Fujian
Province. In 1877–79 he studied at the Navy Academy in
Greenwich, England. Upon his return to China, he was unable to
pass the Imperial Civil Service Examination, while teaching at
the Fujian Arsenal Academy and then Beiyang Naval Officers'
School at Tianjin. It was not until after the Chinese defeat in
the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95, fought for control of
Korea) that Yan Fu became famous. He is celebrated for his
translations, including Thomas Huxley's Evolution and Ethics,
Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, John Stuart Mill's On Liberty
and Herbert Spencer's Study of Sociology. Yan critiqued the
ideas of Darwin and others, offering his own interpretations.
The ideas of "natural selection" and "su