Yuanru kaolüe 元儒考略

Yuanru kaolüe 元儒考略 "Concise Treatise on Confucian Scholars from the Yuan Period" is a collection of biographies of Confucian masters Yuan period 元 (1279-1368) compiled by the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) scholar Feng Congwu 馮從吾 (1557-1627), courtesy name Zhonghao 仲好. He hailed from Chang'an 長安 (modern Xi'an 西安, Shaanxi), obtained his jinshi degree in 1589 and rose to the office of Minister of Works (gongbu shangshu 工部尚書).

He was himself an admirer of the early Neo-Confucian masters Zhou Dunyi 周敦頤 (1017-1073) and the brothers Cheng Hao 程顥 (1032-1085) and Cheng Yi 程頤 (1033-1107) and compiled several treatises on philosophical topics, like Fengzi jieyao 馮子節要, Feng Shaoxu ji 馮少墟集 and Guwen jixuan 古文輯選.

His 4-juan long Yuanru kaolüe includes critical biographies that are enriched with a lot of sources on their lives and thoughts. The length of the biographies is not equal, but corresponds to the importance or influence of the individual scholars. Unfortunately the text is afflicted by many errors, but nevertheless, it is a rich source for the history of thought during the Yuan period. The book is included in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書.