Fan Ye (historian)

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Fan Ye
Traditional Chinese范曄
Simplified Chinese范晔

Fan Ye (398[1] – 23 January 446[2]), courtesy name Weizong (蔚宗), was a Chinese historian, philosopher, and politician of the Liu Song dynasty during the Southern and Northern dynasties period. He was the compiler of the historical text Book of the Later Han. The fourth[3] son of Fan Tai (范泰), Fan Ye was born in present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang, but his ancestral home was in Nanyang, Henan.

He was a noted atheist who heavily criticised Buddhism, Yin and Yang, and the concept of the Mandate of Heaven. To this end, he cited Zhang Heng's scientific studies as evidence.

Fan has a biography in the Book of Song (volume 69).

References

  1. ^ According to Fan Ye's biography in Book of Song, he was 48 (by East Asian reckoning) when he died. (...诸所连及,并伏诛。晔时年四十八。) Song Shu, vol.69. Thus by calculation, his birth year should be 398.
  2. ^ According to Liu Yilong's biography in Book of Song, Fan Ye and his accomplices were executed on the yiwei day of the 12th month of the 22nd year of the Yuan'jia era. This corresponds to 23 Jan 446 on the Julian calendar. [(元嘉二十二年)十二月乙未,太子詹事范晔谋反,及党与皆伏诛.] Song Shu, vol.05
  3. ^ The age order of Fan Ye and his brothers was listed in Fan Tai's biography in Book of Song (volume 60)

Sources

Further reading

  • Yap, Joseph P. (2019). The Western Regions, Xiongnu and Han, from the Shiji, Hanshu and Hou Hanshu. ISBN 978-1792829154.