Late-Southern-Sòng / early-Yuán Yìjīng 易經 specialist and inner-alchemy writer, 1258–1314 (CBDB id 10137 records 1245–1314 from Lù Xīnyuán’s Sòng shīyí 35.6a; the 1258 date is followed here per the Kanripo catalog and the modern Chinese-language SòngYuán xuéàn-following secondary literature). Zì Yùwú 玉吾, hào Línwū shānrén 林屋山人, Yùwū sǒu 玉吾叟, and Quányángzǐ 全陽子. A native of Wújùn 吳郡 (Suzhou 蘇州). Sòng-loyalist recluse who refused to serve the Yuán court; lived at Línwūshān 林屋山 (a famous recluse-locale in the Sūzhōu region).
Within the Kanripo corpus he is the author of:
- KR1a0064 Zhōuyì jí shuō 周易集說 (40 juan; composed across 28 years and 4 complete drafts; auto-preface dated Yuánzhēn bǐngshēn / 1296) — the consummate late-Sòng / early-Yuán synthesis-commentary in the Zhū-Xī-line tradition.
- KR1a0065 Dú Yì jǔ yào 讀易舉要 (4 juan).
- [[KR5a1005|DZ 1005 Zhōuyì cāntóng qì fāhuī 周易參同契發揮]] — the most influential late-Sòng / Yuán commentary on the Cāntóng qì, and the standard source for the Yuán inner-alchemy interpretation of that foundational scripture.
- [[KR5a0126|DZ 126 Huángdì yīnfú jīng zhù]] — a Yīnfú jīng commentary published posthumously with 1348 preface by Shī Yù 施裕.
Other lost or partially-surviving Yì-related works listed by the Sìkù tiyao on KR1a0064: Dú Yì xū zhī 讀易須知, Yì tú zuǎn yào 易圖纂要, Yì jīng kǎo zhèng 易經考證, Yì zhuàn kǎo zhèng 易傳考證, Liùshísì guà tú 六十四卦圖, Gǔ zhān fǎ 古占法, Guà yáo xiàng zhān fēn lèi 卦爻象占分類, Yì tú hé bì 易圖合璧, Lián zhū Yì wài zhuàn 連珠易外傳. Also: Yì wài bié zhuàn 易外別傳 (DZ 1006).
Yú Yǎn’s work integrates Yìjīng learning, inner alchemy, and Sòng Neo-Confucian philosophy. His Cāntóng qì commentary is translated with extensive annotations in Fabrizio Pregadio, The Seal of the Unity of the Three: A Study and Translation of the Cantong qi (Golden Elixir Press, 2011).
Methodologically the consummate late-Sòng / early-Yuán synthesis-commentary writer in the Zhū-Xī-line Yì tradition. The methodological framework — cí běn yú xiàng, xiàng běn yú huà 辭本於象，象本於畫 (“wording is rooted in imagery; imagery is rooted in drawing”) — gives a clean three-tier hermeneutic for Yì-canonical reading. He also performs early-modern hand-copying preservation work: his hand-copy of Lǐ Xīnchuán’s Bǐngzǐ Xué Yì biān (KR1a0050) is the basis of the Sìkù base for that work.