Chen Yuan (historian)

Chen Yuan 陳垣
Born	(1880-11-12)12 November 1880 Xinhui, Guangdong, Qing China
Died	(1971-06-21)21 June 1971 Beijing, PRC
Occupation(s)	historian, educator

Chen Yuan (1880–1971) was a Chinese historian and educator. He is known by his work in the fields of religious history, Yuan Dynasty history, textology and textual criticism. Chen was professor of Peking University, Beijing Normal University and Fu Jen Catholic University, and later served as the president of Beijing Normal University. Before 1949, he also served as the president of Metropolitan Library and the Palace Museum library.

From 1917, Chen began to work on history of Christianity in China, and later published his name-earning book Research of Arkaguns in Yuan Dynasty (《元也里可溫考》). Arkagun is the name given to Christian in Yuan Dynasty. Subsequently, he published several books about the spreading of Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism and Islam in China. Chen also paid great attention to collation work on Code of Yuan Dynasty (《元典章》).