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Yan Fu (1854~1921), styled Jidao, self-assumed name Yuye in his late years, alias philosopher of Tianyan sect，was a native of Houguan (present Fuzhou) in Fujian Province. He was among the first to study in England.
严复(1854~1921)，字几道，晚年自号老人，别署天演宗哲学家，福州南台人，曾经作为中国第一批留学生留学英国。
He attributed the sticking point of the "Chinese Problem" to “the messy and chaotic internal affairs instead of bully and humiliation of foreign countries".
他把“中国问题”的症结归结为“不在外国的欺凌，而在内政之不修”，认为中国只有变法图强，才能挽救危亡。
Therefore in order to save the nation in peril and make the national might felt once again, China had no other way out but to initiate liberal social and political reforms and self-strengthening, and learn from Western science and technology of the capitalist era.
要重振中国的雄风，只有一条路可走，那就是学习西方的近代科学技术与知识。
He translated large numbers of Western academic masterpieces such as introducincing the modern Western society, politics, culture and ideology, especially Darwinism, establishing his status of "top translator of modern China".
他翻译出版了大量西方学术名著，介绍西方近代的社会、政治、文化与思想，尤其是达尔文的进化论，从而奠定了“近代中国第一译手”的地位。
He wanted to acquaint the Chinese with such biological evolutionist ideas as “organic evolution and natural selection" and "the survival of the fittest" and awaken them to the necessity of retaining the political consciousness of striving to become stronger, of competing with nature for supremacy. These ideas became powerful weapons against the ossified ideas of the feudal diehards and stimulated people's demand for institutional reform and national revival.
他的目的是使中国人知道“物竞天择，适者生存”的道理，唤醒中国人保种自强、与大争胜进而变法图存的政治意识。
He translated the British political economist Adam Smith's An Inquiry into The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, which was the most important of his translations and largest in scale.
为了促进中国的富强与发展，他翻译了英国政治经济学家亚当·斯密的《原富》(今译《国民财富的性质及原因研究》)，是分量最重、规模最大的一本译作。
He paid a panegyric on the British philosopher Herbert Spencer's vulgarization of evolutionism conformed better to the actual demand of saving the nation from extinction and self-strengthening.
他特别推崇英国哲学家斯宾塞的“庸俗进化论”，翻译了他的《群学肄言》(今译《社会学研究》)，认为斯宾塞对进化论所进行的庸俗化更合乎当时中国社会救亡图存的现实需要。
He also translated A History of Politics, On Liberty, De l'Esprit des Lois, System of Logic and Pure Logic.
另外，他还翻译了《社会通诠》 ,《群己权界论》、《法意》(今译《论法的精神》)、《名学》、《名学浅说》等。
Yan Fu devoted all his life to the publicity of the ideology of enlightenment. He was one of the most eminent thinkers of enlightenment in modern China.
严复毕生致力于启蒙思想的宣传，是近代中国最著名的启蒙思想家之一。
