Lot Essay
Ruan Yuan (1764-1849) was a well-known scholar official who passed his jinshi examination in 1789, and was subsequently appointed to the Hanlin Academy. He was famous for his literary work, Biographies of Astronomers and Mathematicians. The inscription is a historical reference to the gathering of eighteen erudite scholars who were specifically chosen in AD 621 by Emperor Gaozu, the founder of the Tang dynasty, to promote interests of culture and literature.