[1] Yan Hui was about 30 years younger than Confucius, and became a student of the Master at a young age.

"[2][4][5] We are told that once, when he found himself on the Nang hill with Yan Hui, Zilu, and Zigong, Confucius asked them to tell him their different aims, and he would choose between them.

At last came Yan Hui, who said, "I should like to find an intelligent king and sage ruler whom I might assist.

I would diffuse among the people instructions on the five great points, and lead them on by the rules of propriety and music, so that they should not care to fortify their cities by walls and moats, but would fuse their swords and spears into implements of agriculture.

[6][failed verification] After the death of Yan Hui, Confucius lamented, "Heaven has bereft me!"

The title which he now has in the sacrificial Canon—Fusheng ("Continuator of the Sage")—was conferred in the ninth year of the Jiajing era, A.D. 1530.

[10] In 495 CE, Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei, who venerated Confucius and his teachings, bestowed official ranks upon two scions of Yan Hui's lineage.

[12] His grandfather, Yan Jianyuan had committed suicide by hunger strike after the 502 rebellion against the Southern Qi.

[16] For most of the Ming (1368–1644) and during the entire Qing (1644–1912) dynasty, Yan Hui's descendants held the hereditary title of Wujing Boshi (五经博士; 五經博士; Wǔjīng Bóshì), a scholarly rank from the Hanlin Academy.

[18] In Taiwan there is an office called the "Sacrificial Official" (Fengsiguan 奉祀官) to the Four Sages of Confucianism, which include Yan Hui.