Guxianwu Nianpu

Author: Zhou Kezhen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-12-01
Features: Gu Yanwu was a great patriotic scholar in the transition period between the Ming and Qing dynasties, renowned alongside Wang Fuzhi and Huang Zongxi. He achieved profound expertise in fields such as Confucian classics, history, philosophy, geography, and literature, and made remarkable accomplishments in these areas, ranking among the few "all-round scholars" in the history of ancient Chinese academia. Not only was he a scholar of great erudition, but he also possessed noble character. His-style national spirit, particularly, was deeply admired by later generations. Liang Qichao once extolled him as "not only a master of Confucian classics but also a moral teacher." Gu Yanwu's scholarship and character shone in harmony, elevating him to a revered status and a unique position in academia. However, despite his fame, research on Gu Yanwu, especially on his thought, has remained far from thorough. Compared to the extensive studies on Wang Fuzhi and Huang Zongxi, Gu has been relatively neglected. Over the past century, research on Gu has primarily treated him as a political figure, particularly since the founding of the People's Republic of China, where such studies often carried a propagandistic nature. Consequently, most research works on him leaned toward popular reading rather than academic rigor. While his academic thought has also been studied to some extent, both its breadth and depth have been limited, with few significant works. In terms of research teams, only a handful of scholars, such as Mr. Zhao Lisheng and Mr. Shen Jiarong, have long been dedicated to studying Gu's thought. All of this is highly incongruous with Gu Yanwu's extensive academic ideas and his prominent position in the history of scholarship.
Given these circumstances, in 1988, when I visited Professor Fang Keli (my graduate advisor), he strongly advocated for and encouraged me to seriously study Gu Yanwu. Inspired by my advisor's encouragement, starting in 1989, I began paying attention to academic research on Gu and collecting relevant materials. As time passed and my understanding of the subject deepened, I grew increasingly impressed by the breadth of his scholarship and the nobility of his academic character, dedicating myself even more fervently to the study of Gu's thought. To ensure a more solid foundation for my research, I began writing the chronology of Gu Yanwu in 1990. The chronology is a biographical genre pioneered in the Song Dynasty, defined as "a detailed account of a person's moral character, scholarship, and achievements, meticulously recorded chronologically" (Zhu Shijia, Preface to A Catalog of Chronologies of Famous Figures in Chinese History). Essentially, a chronology is an annalistic history documenting a person's unique life experiences. From the perspective of intellectual history, a thinker's ideas are nothing more than reflections of their distinctive life experiences. Therefore, to study a thinker's thought, one must first understand their unique life journey—this is the attitude required by the materialist historical view of "explaining the concept from practice." The reason I chose to study Gu Yanwu's thought through his chronology lies precisely in this.