Pei Wei (267 – 7 May 300[1]), courtesy name Yimin, was a Chinese essayist, philosopher, physician, and politician[2] of the Western Jin dynasty.
Pei Wei placed great importance in conventional Confucianist teachings, and was taken aback by the growing popularity of Xuanxue in the court during the 290s.
His essay, the Chongyoulun (崇有論), was a response to the works of He Yan and Wang Bi, particularly on their idea that the universe emerged from the concept of "non-being" (wu, 無).
One of his partisans, Liu Yu (劉豫) was coming to Yang Jun's aid when he encountered Pei Wei.
During Pei Wei's time in office, he presented an edict calling for the strengthening of scholarly education and for Confucian Classics to be engraved on stone slabs.
The Crown Prince, Sima Yu, was also lectured on how to properly carry out offerings for Confucius and rites for different events.
Pei Wei also attempted to reform the Chinese measuring system, more particularly in the medical field, although his proposal for this was rejected.
To protect him, Pei Wei presented a petition asking to raise the title of Sima Yu's biological mother, Consort Xie Jiu (謝玖).
Whenever Pei Wei was given a new position, he would always decline, sometimes having to submit more than ten memorials to explain himself in order to prevent offending anyone.
Zhang Hua and Jia Mo were worried that if the Empress remained in power, disaster was bound to happen to them and the court.
Pei Wei tried to refuse this by submitting a petition expressing concern that appointing another family member in place of Jia Mo would appear selfish.
Pei Wei in particular asked for the edict to be verified thoroughly, so Empress Jia presented Sima Yu's letters for the court ministers to compare with.
Even after close inspection, many were too afraid to point out the differences in writing (Sima Yu had written the edict in a drunken state, so Empress Jia had to edit some unfinished words).
Xuanxue was a movement popularized during the Zhengshi era of Cao Wei by the likes of He Yan and Wang Bi.
In Pei Wei's view, Xuanxue was causing ministers to become unrestrained in their behaviour and abandon Confucianist values.