Collected Works of Fang Guoyu (Volume 1)

Author: Fang Guoyu
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2001-08-01
Features: Fang Guoyu was a renowned historian, ethnologist, linguist, and educator. He was a pioneer in the study of Southwest ethnic history and the founder of Yunnan local history, leaving behind substantial academic achievements. This collection includes a large number of the author's works that were not previously published or compiled, divided into five volumes. The first volume includes several theoretical articles from the author's later years and works related to the pre-Qin to Jin dynasties; the second volume contains works on the Tang and Song dynasties; the third volume features works on the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties; the fourth volume presents research in epigraphy, ethnology, and historical geography; and the fifth volume includes the author's linguistic and phonological studies from before the age of thirty. The three volumes of "Lectures on the History of Ethnic Groups in Yunnan," written by the author in the 1950s, were too extensive to be included in this collection and will be published as a separate book in the future. The articles in this collection are printed in the same format as they were originally published in newspapers or journals, or based on the author's manuscripts and typed drafts, with only minor corrections for obvious typographical errors. Many of the author's manuscripts and typed drafts lacked punctuation, so the editors added it for the convenience of readers.
Fang Guoyu, styled Ruichen, was born on January 18, 1903, in Lijiang, Yunnan Province. He was a male of the Naxi ethnic group and a member of the Communist Party of China. In 1981, he became a doctoral supervisor in the history of Chinese ethnic groups at Yunnan University. In 1924, he enrolled in the preparatory program at Beijing Normal University. In 1930, he was admitted as a graduate student at the Institute of Chinese Studies at Peking University, where he studied at both institutions simultaneously. He was mentored by scholars such as Qian Xuantong, Yu Jiaxi, Ma Heng, and Liu Fu, focusing on phonology, etymology, bibliography, textual criticism, epigraphy, and the study of artifacts. He was also inspired by scholars like Gao Buying, Wu Chengshi, and Li Jinxi. At the same time, under the guidance of Chen Yuan, the head of the history department at Beijing Normal University, he took numerous history courses and learned the methods of historical and geographical studies from scholars such as Yang Shudao and Liang Qichao. In 1932, he graduated from the undergraduate program in Chinese literature at Beijing Normal University, and in 1933, he graduated from the Institute of Chinese Studies at Peking University. He served as an editor at the Research Institute of Beijing Normal University, a teacher at Luoyang Normal School, a professor at the Department of Chinese Literature at the Private Min Dynasty University in Beijing, a professor and later head of the Department of Historical and Literary Studies at Yunnan University, and the president of the College of Liberal Arts. He also served as a reviewer, appraiser, and reviser for the Yunnan Provincial Historical Gazetteer Compilation Office. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he held positions such as vice chairman of the Yunnan Provincial Committee of the Jiu San Society, member of the Yunnan Provincial People's Government Committee on Ethnic Affairs, member of the National People's Congress Committee on Ethnic Affairs, and deputy to the third, fourth, and fifth sessions of the National People's Congress. He also served as an advisor to the National Historical Gazetteer Compilation Committee, an advisor to the China Southwest Ethnic Studies Association, and a council member of the China Education Society. Since the 1950s, he successively enrolled three batches of graduate students in the history of Chinese ethnic groups, training three master's students, one doctoral student, one foreign student, and one foreign visiting scholar. He was highly prolific in writing, with major works including "An Overview of Yunnan Historical Materials and Bibliography," "A Spectrum of Naxi Hieroglyphs," "A Draft of the History of the Yi Ethnic Group," and "An Interpretation of the Historical Geography of Southwest China," among more than ten other works. He led the compilation and publication of the "Historical Atlas of China" (Southwest Region).
Fang Guoyu was a pioneer and founder in the study of Yunnan local history and Southwest ethnic history, hailed as the "Great Master of Southwest China" and the "Mighty Giant of Yunnan History," becoming a master of academia in Yunnan.