Yen Fu (1853-1921) was a Chinese translator and scholar. His translations and annotations were enormously influential in introducing European thought regarding political theory and sociology to China.

Born in Fukien Province to a scholar-gentry family, Yen Fu was early exposed to China's traditional learning. This education, which would have led to competition in the civil service examinations and an official career, was aborted when his father died in 1866, leaving the family in straitened circumstances. Young Yen then continued his education as a student in the school of the Foochow Shipyard. There he learned English and studied Western science. He also traveled extensively, visiting Singapore and Japan, and in 1877 went to England, where he studied at the Greenwich Naval College. Thus at the age of 26 he was, among Chinese, one of the best-informed about the Western world.

Throughout most of the ensuing years, until 1906, Yen served as superintendent of...