Yung-lun Yüan

A Qing dynasty author, Yung-lun Yüan is known for Jing hai fen ji—often translated as History of the Pirates Who Infested the China Sea from 1807 to 1810. The text survives in later editions and is attributed to 袁永綸, linking the English-form name to the Chinese author recorded in Chinese-language sources.

In the prefaces and notes to the work, he presents himself as someone deeply concerned with events along the coast and intent on recording what was seen and heard about the pirate disturbances of the Jiaqing era. He says he aimed to keep the account factual and useful for later readers, especially when describing local suffering, loyal officials, and acts of bravery.

That makes his book valuable not just as adventure-filled history, but as a contemporary-style record of crisis, memory, and community life in southern China. Reliable biographical details about his broader life were not readily confirmed from the sources I found, so his reputation today rests mainly on this striking historical work.