Ma Tuan-Li (Mă Duānlín)
was Chinese historical writer, encyclopedist and the first sociologist
who recognized social dynamics as an underlying component of historical
development in his seminal encyclopedia “General Study of Literary Remains” (“Wenxian
tongkao”) in XIII century. He served the Yuan dynasty and played an important
role in reviving the educational system of China, considering knowledge of
institutional history necessary to the Confucian official as knowledge of the Confucian
Classics.
