Featured Article Summary #184

Gu Yanwu (1613–1682) was a Chinese historian, philologist, and poet. He struggled to succeed in the civil service examinations, and after the Qing replaced the Ming, he survived the political upheaval and became a traveling scholar who gathered notes from across China. Born in Qiandun in present-day Kunshan, Jiangsu, he was adopted and educated by his adoptive family in classical Chinese learning, then passed early exams but repeatedly failed to advance before eventually giving up the exam system. After the Qing conquest he became a supporter of the fallen Ming, changed his name to Yanwu, and chose not to take an official political role, instead focusing on travel and study. His best-known work, an edited collection of his notes, emphasized practical statecraft and history based on original sources, and he criticized Neo-Confucianism and other major schools of thought as well as excessive reliance on centralized bureaucracy and law codes. Only a couple of his writings were published during his lifetime, while the rest were issued after his death, and his ideas later influenced Qing-era scholars and were praised by later reformers and revolutionaries. Gu Yanwu was born in 1613 as Gu Jishen in Qiandun, near Kunshan in the Jiangnan region. His family had long been part of the scholar-official class, and through his father’s uncle, he was adopted as the heir of a deceased son, with his adoptive mother being Wang. He grew up studying Confucian classics and history, including works connected to Zhu Xi, though he was often sick and contracted smallpox at age three, permanently disfiguring one of his eyes. At first, Gu Shaofei disliked both modern scholarship and the imperial examination system, but after a friend’s advice he trained for the exams and in 1626 passed at Suzhou to become a student scholar. After his father died, Gu followed mourning rules and had a series of exam setbacks, including failing triennial examinations in 1630 and again in 1639. Despite doing well in annual tests at times, he shifted toward private study after 1639, reading historical records and local gazetteers and beginning notes for his geography works that same year. After Gu Shaofei died in 1641, Gu stopped taking exams and became the head of his household after his brother Gu Xiang died the next year. The heavy funeral costs forced him to mortgage part of the family estate, which led to a property dispute, while his adoption was challenged by his nephews who even tried to burn his home. When the Manchu Qing overran much of China in 1644–1645, Gu’s family fled repeatedly, and although he was recommended for an official post and called to serve in Nanjing, the Qing captured the city before he could begin; he returned home, and his adoptive mother Wang later died, deeply affecting his work and life. He changed his name to Yanwu and destroyed his earlier poems, dedicating himself emotionally and politically to resisting the conquest and honoring his mother’s memory. In 1646, Gu sent a servant to the Prince of Tang’s court, but Gu himself did not go because he had not yet buried his mother. The trip brought news that the prince struggled to form a working government, and Gu responded by writing a poem honoring the messenger’s arrival. As the Southern Ming resistance continued and many of his relatives were killed, Gu wrote poems remembering them, though there is no clear evidence of his direct involvement in fighting. In 1647 and beyond, Gu traveled along the northern Jiangsu and Zhejiang coasts, then held his mother’s funeral in Kunshan in late 1647. After more mourning, he resumed traveling, returned to Nanjing in 1651 to visit Hongwu’s tomb, and lived there from 1652 to 1654, buying a small home on Shenlie Mountain to make his repeated pilgrimages easier.