阮元

From 扬州, he served as governor or governor-general of several provinces and ended as a Grand Secretary. He used his posts to sponsor scholarship: in 1816 he printed the 十三经注疏 with his own notes on variant readings, still the standard edition, and in Guangzhou he had the 皇清经解, a vast collection of Qing studies of the classics, compiled and printed.

He championed the study of inscriptions on bronze and stone, 金石. His essays on the northern and southern schools of calligraphy argued that the plain stele writing of the Northern Dynasties was as worthy as the model letters of the south, opening the way for the Qing taste for stele calligraphy, 碑学.