Lu Wenchao 盧文弨

Lu Wenchao 盧文弨 (1717-1795), courtesy name Zhaogong 召弓 or Shaogong 紹弓, style Jiyu 磯漁 or Baojing xiansheng 抱經先生, was a mid-Qing period 清 (1644-1911) philosopher. He hailed from Yuyao 余姚, Zhejiang, and earned his jinshi degree in 1752. He was then appointed junior compiler (bianxiu 編修) in the Hanlin Academy 翰林院, became later academician reader-in-waiting (shidu xueshi 侍讀學士) and was provincial principal examiner (xiangshi zhengkaoguan 鄉試正考官) in Guangdong and supervising schools instructor (tiju xuezheng 提擧學政) in Hunan. He retired quite early and became a teacher in the private academies Ziyang 紫陽書院, Zhongshan 鍾山書院 and Xihu 西湖書院.

Lu Wenchao was very interested in textual critique of ancient writings and published an excellent text-critical editions of the book Xunzi 荀子. He assembled commentaries to the history Yizhoushu 逸周書 and published them. He is also known as a publisher of a series of books that had long been neglected by philosophers, like the Chunqiu fanlu 春秋繁露, Yanshi jiaxun 顏氏家訓, Jingdian shiwen 經典釋文, Lüshi chunqiu 呂氏春秋 and Mozi 墨子, and wrote a commentary to the ancient dictionary Guangya 廣雅, the Guangya zhu 廣雅注. He assembled some books in his series Baojingtang congshu 抱經堂叢書 and collected fragements of various books published as Qunshu shibu 群書拾補.

Lu Wenchao's own collected works are included in the book Baojingtang wenji 抱經堂文集.