Guo Pu studied

Author: Lian Zhenbiao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-07-01
Features: Guo Pu (276–324), a scholar and litterateur of the Jin Dynasty. His courtesy name was Jingchun. He was from Wuxi, Hedong (now part of Shanxi). His father, Guo Yuan, served as the Governor of Jianping in the early Jin Dynasty. In the late Western Jin period, Guo Pu predicted that war would break out in his hometown and thus fled to the southeast. After crossing the Yangtze River, he served as a staff member under Yin Xian, the Governor of Xuancheng. Later, he moved eastward from Xuancheng and was recommended by Wang Dao, then serving as the Governor of Danyang, to become a staff member. After Emperor Yuan of Jin ascended the throne, he was appointed as the Assistant Compiler of the Imperial Library and later promoted to the position of Minister of State Affairs. He later served as the personal secretary of Wang Dun, the Grand General. Guo Pu was killed for advising against Wang Dun's rebellion against the imperial authority and was posthumously honored as the Governor of Hongnong. Guo Pu had profound expertise in ancient scriptology and etymology. He annotated classic texts such as the I Ching (Book of Changes), the Shanhaijing (Classic of Mountains and Seas), the Erya (Explaining Words), the Fangyan (Regional Speeches), and the Chuci (Songs of Chu). His poetic works originally numbered tens of thousands of words, with the description "his prose and poetry were the crown of the Zhongxing era" (Jin Shu - Biography of Guo Pu). Most of his works have been lost. Today, only 10 prose pieces and 18 complete poems remain. The Sui Shu (Book of Sui) records the existence of "17 volumes of the Guo Pu Collection by the Governor of Hongnong of the Jin Dynasty," which no longer exists. In the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Pu compiled the Guo Hongnong Collection in two volumes, which was included in the Hanyu Weilvei Baijia Jicong (Collection of 100 Families from the Han to the Southern and Northern Dynasties).