Wei Yuan (Chinese: 魏源, 1794 - 1857) was a Chinese scholar of the Qing Dynasty and he wrote many books on politics in his life. His courtesy names were Mo Shen(Chinese: 默深) and Hanshi (Chinese: 漢士). He was born in Shao Yang (present-day Hu Nan Province).
When Wei Yuan was young, he followed his teacher, Liu Feng, to study the History of China.
During the reign of Daoguang Emperor, Wei Yuan successfully got a provincial degree in the Imperial examinations.
In 1826, Wei Yuan was ordered to write a political book called Huang Chao Jing Shi Wen Pian (Chinese: 《皇朝經世文篇》). Besides, he helped the imperial official to deal with the problem of building the canals.
From 1841 AD until 1842 AD, Wei Yuan was asked to defeat the British armies in the First Opium War.
From 1842 AD until 1843 AD, Wei Yuan finished writing a book which was about the matters of Western countries. The book was called Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms (Chinese: 《海國圖志》).
After the First Opium War, Wei Yuan wrote another book titled Military history of the Qing Dynasty (Chinese: 《聖武記》)