Song Lian

Song Lian (宋濂, 1310 - 1381), style name Jinglian (景濂), was a literary and political adviser to the Ming dynasty founder, and one of the principal figures in the Mongol Yuan Dynasty Jinhua school of Neo-Confucianism. As a head of the official Bureau of History of the Ming dynasty, Song Lian directed compilation of the official dynastic history of the preceding defunct Yuan Dynasty.

The compilation of the History of Yuan, commissioned by the court of the Ming Dynasty, was completed in 1370, it formalized the official history of the preceding Chingizid Yuan Dynasty. Under the guidance of Song Lian, the official dynastic history broke with the old Confucian historiographical tradition, and established a new historical paradigm professing that the influence of history was equal in influence to the great Confucian classics in directing the human affairs.

In Asian historiography, Yuanshi is a major source for the history of Chinese, Tungusic, Mongol, and Turkic peoples.