Yuan Xian (原憲) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Yuan Xian as a named individual, scholar, and student. This record brings together 5 passages from 3 chapters across 3 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Yuan Xian	原憲	Yuán Xiàn
Given	Xian	憲	Xiàn
Surname	Yuan	原	Yuán
Personal name	Yuan Xian	原憲	Yuán Xiàn
Personal name	Yuan Xian	原憲	Yuan Xian

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Strongly inferred · beishi:088:s0260, shiji:124:s0004
Sex: male
Explicit · suishu:077:s0247

Roles

Named Individual
Scholar
Student

Life and dates

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 時人方之閔子騫、原憲 · Western Interval: Start: BC 520 · End: BC 480
Uncertain · beishi:088:s0260
Source Date: Text: 時人方之閔子騫原憲 · Western Interval: Start: AD 581 · End: AD 604
Explicit event contextual date · suishu:077:s0247
Source Date: Text: 死而已四百餘年 · Western Year: BC 500
Explicit event contextual date · shiji:124:s0004, shiji:124:s0006

Career and standing

Status: poverty · Label: bare rooms and wattle doors / 空室蓬戶
Explicit · shiji:124:s0005

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: exemplar to whom contemporaries compared Zhang Wenxu · Other Person Id: Zhang Wenxu (張文詡) · Provenance: Mode: named-source-report · Witness: people of the time / 時人
Explicit · beishi:088:s0260
Assessment: solitary gentleman; laughed at by his age · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment · Speaker Person Id: Sima Qian (太史公)
Explicit · shiji:124:s0004

Source notes

Historicity: historical
Explicit · beishi:088:s0260

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

History of the Northern Dynasties, Chapter 88Volume 88 Biographies 76: Recluses · 1 passage

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以如意擊幾自樂，皆有處所，時人方之閔子騫、原憲焉。 He struck the table with his ruyi scepter for his own pleasure, each stroke falling in its place; people of the time compared him to Min Ziqian and Yuan Xian.

Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 124Biographies of Knight-errants · 3 passages

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及若季次、原憲，閭巷人也，讀書懷獨行君子之德，義不茍合當世，當世亦笑之。 Then there were men like Ji Ci and Yuan Xian — common folk of the lanes and alleys who cherished their books and upheld the solitary virtues of the true gentleman. They refused on principle to bend to the age, and the age laughed at them in return.

故季次、原憲終身空室蓬戶，褐衣疏食不厭。 So Ji Ci and Yuan Xian lived out their days in bare rooms behind wattle doors, clad in rough cloth and eating thin gruel, yet never once complained.

誠使鄉曲之俠，予季次、原憲比權量力，效功於當世，不同日而論矣。 If one were to weigh the local knights against Ji Ci and Yuan Xian in terms of power and achievement, measuring their service to the age — they simply cannot be spoken of in the same breath.

Book of Sui, Chapter 77Volume 77 Biographies 42: Recluses · 1 passage

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以如意擊幾，皆有處所，時人方之閔子騫原憲焉。 He would strike the armrest with his ruyi scepter, each blow landing in its place; men of the time compared him to Min Ziqian and Yuan Xian.