Gu Jiegang's Classic Writings

Author: Gu Jiegang
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-12-01
Features: The authors of this series are all distinguished masters of Chinese classics, Western philosophy, thinkers, and writers who have made outstanding contributions to human civilization. Their thoughts and works are invaluable treasures in the spiritual wealth of humanity. In today's era of "quick reading culture," the release of this series provides high-quality spiritual nourishment for readers, especially young students, and holds significant positive social value. The planning of this series is ingenious and distinctive. It differs from the complete translations of the "Translated Classics" series by the Commercial Press, as well as from the evaluation-style books published by other presses that only contain critiques without original texts. Based on in-depth analysis and research of a vast number of complete works, the editors repeatedly compared and selected the most classic and readable content. Each master is featured in a single volume, each with an introductory preface in a guide-like style, a biographical chronology, and a timeline of works, with precise annotations, all aimed at achieving the goals of "popularization" and "enlightenment." Readers can choose what they like and need to comprehensively read and understand the masters within a limited time. The series features elegant design, striving for a perfect unity of content and form. The first five volumes were awarded the 2002 National University Press Book Cover Design Gold Award. For the study of traditional Chinese culture in the 20th century, Gu Jiegang's emergence holds a particularly special significance. As a historian and folklorist, Gu Jiegang not only achieved extraordinary accomplishments in ancient history research and proposed the important theory of "the layered construction of ancient history," but he also applied his historical insights to the field of folkloristics, thereby establishing the highly significant "law of evolution." This law became a scientific method widely used in folkloristics research to this day. This interactive research approach between history and folkloristics has secured Gu Jiegang an important academic position in both fields. History and folkloristics may appear as two distinct disciplines, but in Gu Jiegang's academic thought, they are deeply interconnected. He dedicated himself to studying the story of Meng Jiangnu, primarily to "provide an example of using auxiliary evidence for ancient history research." His findings also demonstrated that all ancient historical phenomena recorded in legends are unreliable. His innovative "doubtful ancient history" (Xin Yi Gu) ideology and methodology, as well as his dynamic approach to examining folk literature, have had a profound influence on later scholars. Especially, the figures and events he studied in his research remain topics of interest for many scholars today. The selected works in this volume, Gu Jiegang's Classic Writings, are carefully chosen from his published works, with a focus on discussions and reflections in ancient history and folkloristics. It can serve as a mirror for reflection for readers, especially young students, on their life journey.