Bì Yuán 畢沅

(1730–1797) Qīng scholar and official whose Mòzǐ zhù (1784) marks the beginning of the modern philological study of the Mòzǐ. Drawing on evidential scholarship and textual criticism, he was among the first scholars to confront the structural problems posed by the Mòjīng, including the relationship between the canons and their explanations. His arrangement of portions of the text in parallel rows (pángháng) anticipated later attempts to reconstruct the organisation of the Mòjīng and influenced subsequent scholars such as Sūn Yíràng.