Quick Answer: Who Was Gu Yanwu?
Gu Yanwu (顾炎武, Gù Yánwǔ, 1613–1682) was a scholar and loyalist during the transition from the Ming dynasty (明, Míng) to the Qing dynasty (清, Qīng). His Record of Daily Knowledge (日知录, Rìzhī Lù) brought scholarship to bear on issues such as local government and the interpretation of ancient texts.[2]
- Ming resistance: Gu helped organize the defense of his native Kunshan (昆山, Kūnshān) in 1645.[1]
- Historical evidence: His work drew on inscriptions, classical texts and observations gathered on his travels.[1][2]
- Public duty: Gu held that ordinary people shared responsibility for protecting a wider moral order.[4]
The familiar eight-character maxim about public duty is a later rendering of his argument.[5]
What could a line of poetry tell a reader if its final word seemed out of place? Gu treated such puzzles as evidence of change. His studies of pronunciation ran alongside investigations into the problems that had weakened the Ming government.[2][3]
From Ming Resistance to Northern Travels
After Beijing changed hands in 1644, Gu received a minor appointment at the Ming loyalist court in Nanjing. From 1657 he traveled across northern China, visiting places in what are now Shandong, Shanxi and Shaanxi. He made repeated visits to the Ming imperial tombs. In 1679 he turned down efforts to recruit him for the Qing project to write the official history of the Ming.[1]
How Gu Used Texts and Inscriptions
Gu collected inscriptions that earlier works had overlooked. Some of the inscriptions he copied during his journeys were later published as a separate work.[1] His notes in Record of Daily Knowledge covered subjects from the Classics to taxation and civil examinations.[2]
Gu first printed eight divisions in 1670 and kept revising the work. After his death, Pan Lei (潘耒, Pān Lěi) edited the expanded edition, which appeared in 1695 in 32 divisions.[1]
What Ancient Rhymes Can Show
The Book of Odes (诗经, Shījīng), a foundational collection of Chinese poetry, contains verse endings that no longer rhyme in modern pronunciations. One stanza in Ode 109, for example, rhymes 哉 (zāi), 其 (qí), 之 (zhī) and 思 (sī), whose endings sound different in present-day Mandarin.[3]
Gu identified ten groups of ancient rhymes, and later researchers refined the categories.[3] Gu’s Five Books on the Study of Sounds (音学五书, Yīnxué Wǔshū) put phonology at the center of his classical studies.[9] He considered an understanding of sound essential to the analysis of ancient texts.[8]
Public Duty and Local Government
In the essay “Zhengshi” (正始, Zhèngshǐ), Gu separated the fall of a ruling house from the breakdown of the moral and social order he associated with all under Heaven (天下, tiānxià). He assigned the first responsibility to rulers and ministers and gave ordinary people a share in the second.[4]
Gu also proposed giving more authority to local officials. He wanted to combine features of hereditary enfeoffment (封建, fēngjiàn) with prefectural and county administration (郡县, jùnxiàn).[6] One proposal was to let local magistrates recruit their own staff.[7] His contemporary Huang Zongxi (黄宗羲, Huáng Zōngxī) also distinguished the interests of a ruling house from those of the wider society.[5]
FAQs About Gu Yanwu
Why is Gu Yanwu also called Gu Tinglin?
Gu Tinglin (顾亭林, Gù Tínglín) combines his surname with his literary name, Tinglin. His students and other readers used this name for him.[1]
Did Gu Yanwu write the eight-character saying?
The saying “天下兴亡，匹夫有责” (tiānxià xīngwáng, pǐfū yǒu zé) gives every person a stake in the fate of society. It condenses Gu’s longer argument. Literary historian Huang Shen identifies the eight-character wording in a work published in 1799 that attributes it to Gu.[5]
Can I read Record of Daily Knowledge in English?
Columbia University Press publishes English selections from the book alongside Gu’s poems and other essays, translated and edited by Ian Johnston.[2]
Fuentes
[1] Fang Chao-ying. Ku Yen-wu, Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing Period
[2] Gu Yanwu, translated and edited by Ian Johnston. Record of Daily Knowledge and Collected Poems and Essays, Selections
[3] Johann-Mattis List, Nathan W. Hill and Christopher J. Foster. Towards a Standardized Annotation of Rhyme Judgments in Chinese Historical Phonology, section 1.1
[4] Gu Yanwu. Zhengshi, Record of Daily Knowledge, annotated edition
[5] Huang Shen. On the Saying Everyone Bears Responsibility for All Under Heaven
[6] John Delury. The Constitutional Debate in Early Qing China
[7] Gu Yanwu. On Prefectures and Counties, first essay
[8] On-cho Ng. Qing Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
[9] Gu Yanwu. Preface to Five Books on the Study of Sounds