Pei Yan
Pei Yan was from Jiang Prefecture (絳州, part of modern Yuncheng, Shanxi), and it is not known when he was born. When he was young, he became a student at the imperial university, and it was said that during vacations, the other students would often go out to travel, but Pei kept studying. After he studied at the university for more than a year, he was due to be recommended for an official post, but he declined the recommendation on the basis that he felt that his studies were not done, and he ended up studying for more than 10 years at the university, particularly gaining expertise in the "Zuo Zhuan" and the "Book of Han".