Lǚ Zǔqiān 呂祖謙 (1137–1181), zì Bógōng 伯恭, hào Dōnglái 東萊, posthumous title Chénggōng 成公. Of Wùzhōu 婺州 / Jīnhuá 金華 (modern Jīnhuá, Zhèjiāng). One of the Dōngnán sān xiānshēng 東南三先生 (“Three Masters of the Southeast”) with Zhū Xī 朱熹 (1130–1200) and 張栻 (Zhāng Shì, 1133–1180).
Descendant of the great Northern-Sòng Lǚ-clan scholarly lineage (his great-great-grandfather was the chief minister Lǚ Yíjiǎn 呂夷簡; his great-grandfather Lǚ Gōngzhù 呂公著; collateral kinsman Lǚ Bénzhōng 呂本中 of the Tóngméng xùn 童蒙訓 fame). Jìnshì of Lóngxìng 1 (1163), and successful in the same year’s Bóxué hóngcí 博學宏詞 (Polymath-and-Versatile-Composition) examination — an unusual double-success.
Founded the Wùzhōu Lìzhái Academy 麗澤書院 with his brother Lǚ Zǔjiǎn 呂祖儉; this was the venue of the famous Éhú zhīhuì 鵝湖之會 (Goose-Lake Convocation, 1175) which he convened to mediate between Zhū Xī’s Dàoxué circle and Lù Jiǔyuān’s emerging xīnxué circle. Held Tàixué bóshì 太學博士 (Imperial Academy Professor); Bìshūshěng zhèngzì 秘書省正字 (Imperial Library Orthographer); editorial work on the imperial Huìyào 會要 compilation.
Death in Chúnxī 8 (1181), aged 45 suì (44 Western years), preceded the Qìngyuán dǎngjìn of 1196 — sparing him the proscriptive reaction that fell on Zhū Xī’s later disciples.
CBDB id 7055 corroborates lifedates 1137–1181. Sòngshǐ biography in juan 434.
His scholarly project was distinctive within the Dàoxué mainstream for integrating jīngshǐzhīxué 經史之學 (Classics-and-history scholarship) with Dàoxué doctrine — methodologically prefiguring the Yǒngjiā / Yǒngkāng schools’ historical-realist jīngshì 經世 program. Compiled extensively across genres: the Dōnglái Bóyì 東萊博議 (essays on the Zuǒ zhuàn); Lìdài zhìdù xiángshuō 歷代制度詳說; the Sòng wénjiàn 宋文鑑 anthology; the Jìnsī lù 近思錄 (with Zhū Xī).
Within the Kanripo corpus he is the editor of KR1a0043 Gǔ Zhōuyì 古周易 — the gǔyì (ancient-Yì) recension that became the textual base for Zhū Xī’s Zhōuyì běnyì and thereby the operative Yì-text-form for the entire post-Sòng tradition.