This is a biographical study of Ruan Yuan, based on Betty Peh-T'i Wei's doctoral dissertation. Organized into five parts and fifteen chapters, including an introduction and conclusion as well as six appendices, this book is the most detailed study to date of the life of Ruan Yuan. It scrutinizes the successful career of Ruan as an official, his prolific production as a scholar, as well as his sagacity and generosity as a patron of scholarly projects.

The book is organized chronologically, with a few thematic chapters (parts III and IV). The book is divided into five parts. Part I, “The Making of a Scholar-Official,” has three chapters. The first two introduce Ruan's family background as well as his success at the examinations and his meteoric rise in officialdom. While in Beijing, Ruan joined scholars engaged in Han Learning. Chapter 3 recounts his service as director of studies in Shandong (1793–95) and Zhejiang (1795–97). During this period, he established and renovated academies in the provinces in which he served, and also began to patronize scholars to work on classical projects.

Part II, “The Provincial Official at Work,” consists of five chapters (4–8), each focusing on one type of task he undertook in his capacities as governor of Zhejiang and Jiangxi and as governor-general, first in Guangdong and Guangxi and then in Yunnan and Guizhou. The tasks included the suppression of piracy in Zhejiang; investigation of scams associated with secret societies in Jiangxi (1814–16) and Guangxi (1817–26); adjudication of crimes by foreign, especially British, seamen and Chinese in Canton; management of conflicts among minority tribes and their disputes with the Han migrants; and the “Social Welfare Programmes” he managed in Zhejiang in 1799–1809.

Part III, “Ruan Yuan at Leisure,” has only one chapter, “Scholar and Patron of Learning of the Mid-Qing Era,” which concentrates on his publications, his relationship with the Yangzhou school, as well as the scholars he patronized. Part IV, “The Private Ruan Yuan,” includes two chapters (10–11) on Ruan's relationship with his father, as well as his wives, concubines, and daughters. Part V, “The Senior Statesman,” consists of two chapters (12–13): one concerning his duties as a grand secretary, the other his activities after retirement. In the conclusion, the author reiterates her praise for Ruan Yuan's scholarly and political achievements.

The author has marshaled an impressive amount of information from diverse sources, including archival materials, parliamentary documents in Britain, and personal interviews. The strengths of the book are its meticulous research and its comprehensive coverage of Ruan Yuan's life. It provides the reader with a panoramic view of Ruan Yuan's career as an official and as a patron of scholarship. The ferocity and tenacity with which the author tracked down information about Ruan Yuan are exemplary. Scholars will find information conveniently grouped together in appendices: a chronology of Ruan Yuan's government appointments, a genealogical chart, a long list of scholars associated with Ruan with Chinese names and many with dates, and a classified catalogue of works by Ruan and literary projects completed by his protégé.

For the sake of comprehensiveness, the author has sacrificed analytical rigor and depth. For example, she dwells on the various duties and issues that Ruan handled as governor-general of Guizhou and Yunnan, from minority tribal succession, opium trade, secret societies, illegal salt trade, and tribute missions from Vietnam, to granaries, and so on. The coverage of such a wide variety of subjects cannot be anything but superficial. While the book provides a wealth of information on Ruan's scholarly works and his patronage activities, it offers little discussion and insight on the intellectual development of Ruan as a scholar. Much of the discussion of Qing thought and learning is sketchy and tenuous. For example, the compilation of the monumental work Huang Qing jingjie (Exegetical Works on the Classics by Scholars of the Qing Dynasty) under Ruan Yuan's auspices receives only passing mention (pp. 204, 254). This seminal work of Qing classical scholarship that Ruan fervently promoted deserves to be discussed much more than, say, the Liu Fengguo affair or Ruan's short appointment as a director-general of grain transport (appendices V and VI). The book's editing is far from satisfactory, leaving numerous mismatches of pinyin Romanization and Chinese characters, as well as striking errors in dates (see “Reign Titles of Qing Emperors,” pp. 183, 191, 271).

The book is written in a laudatory tone, with considerable admiration and respect for its hero. It fulfills the author's hope for an exhaustive and comprehensive biography of Ruan Yuan. Qing scholars will find interesting and useful information about Ruan Yuan and the people and events crossing his path. The author has rendered a service to the scholarly community with this contribution to the field of Qing history.