Ruan Yuan, courtesy name Boyuan (伯元), art name Yuntai (芸臺), posthumous name Wenda (文達), was a Chinese historian, politician, and writer of the Qing dynasty who was the most prominent Chinese scholar during the first half of the 19th century. He won the jinshi degree in the imperial examinations in 1789 and was subsequently appointed to the Hanlin Academy. He was known for his work Biographies of Astronomers and Mathematicians and for his editing the Shisan Jing Zhushu for the Qing emperor.