Gu Xiancheng

In thisChinese name,thefamily nameisGu.

Portrait of Gu Xiancheng

Gu Xiancheng(Chinese:Cố hiến thành;pinyin:Gù Xiànchéng;1550–1612) was aMing dynastyChinese bureaucrat and educator who founded theDonglin movement.

He was born inJiangnan,to a mercantile family, and from an early age was tutored in theChinese classics.He quickly rejected theYaojiang schoolofWang Yangming,favouring the strong moral dichotomy of earlierSongphilosophers such asZhu Xi.A student ofXue Yingqi,he held office as Grand Secretary in the Imperial Court.

Together with his brother and his student Gao Panlong he rebuilt theDonglin ( "East Forest" ) Academyin 1604, in the town ofWuxi.

The Donglin Charter was based on Zhu Xi'sArticles of the White Deer Grotto,and incorporated quotations from a number of Confucian classics. Gu required prospective entrants to have four key qualities, which he called the Four Essentials: students had to consider their fundamental nature, show firm resolve, respect the Classics and scrutinise their own motivation.

Gu's Academy quickly attracted a large student base, and became a rallying point for dissent and criticism of the government, in the form of theDonglin movement.The Academy was strongly critical of the notorious eunuchWei Zhongxian,and as a result of Wei's persecution it was shut down in 1622; it reopened some years later after the eunuch's death.