Du You

Du You (Chinese: 杜佑; pinyin: Dù Yòu; Wade–Giles: Tu Yu) (735 – December 23, 812), courtesy name Junqing (君卿), formally Duke Anjian of Qi (岐安簡公), was a Chinese scholar, historian and chancellor of the Tang Dynasty, who devoted thirty-six years to the compilation of the Tongdian, a historical encyclopedia with 200 sections (volumes), a collection of laws, regulations, and general events from ancient times to his own. He was born to an official family in what is now Xi'an, Shaanxi, almost eighteen years before the abrupt rebellion of An Lushan. Du was "a political thinker on a grand scale," comparable to Ibn Khaldun, according to Robert G. Hoyland.