Guo Pu

In thisChinese name,thefamily nameisGuo.

Guo Pu
Guo Pu
Chinese	Quách phác
Literal meaning	(personal name)
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Guō Pú Gwoyeu Romatzyh Guo Pwu Wade–Giles Kuo1P'u2 IPA [kwó pʰǔ] Wu Romanization Kueʔ Poʔ Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Gwok Puk Jyutping Gwok3Pok3 IPA [kʷɔk̚˧ pʰɔk̚˧] Southern Min HokkienPOJ Kueh Phok Middle Chinese Middle Chinese kwak pʰuwk
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	Cảnh thuần
Simplified Chinese	Cảnh thuần
Literal meaning	(courtesy name)
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Jǐngchún Gwoyeu Romatzyh Jiingchwen Wade–Giles Ching3-ch'un2 Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Gíng-sèuhn Jyutping Ging2-seon4 Southern Min HokkienPOJ Kíng-sûn Middle Chinese Middle Chinese kjǽng dʒwin

Guo Pu(Chinese:Quách phác;AD 276–324), courtesy name Jingchun (Chinese:Cảnh thuần;pinyin:Jǐngchún), was a Chinese historian, poet, and writer during theEastern Jinperiod, and is best known as one of China's foremost commentators on ancient texts. Guo was a Taoist mystic, geomancer, collector of strange tales, editor of old texts, and erudite commentator. He was the first commentator of theShan Hai Jingand so probably, with the noted Han bibliographer Liu Xin, was instrumental in preserving this valuable mythological and religious text.Guo Pu was the well educated son of a governor. He was a natural historian and a prolific writer of theJin dynasty.He is the author ofThe Book of Burial,the first-ever and the most authoritative source offeng shuidoctrine and the first book to address the concept of feng shui in the history of China, making Guo Pu the first person historically to define feng shui, and therefore, Guo Pu is usually called the father of feng shui in China.

Life

A native ofWenxi County,in what is now southwestShanxi Province,Guo studiedDaoistoccultismandprognosticationin his youth, and mainly worked as a prognosticator for various local officials and leaders, interpreting omens and portents in order to predict the success or failure of various endeavors.In AD 307 aXiongnuclan invaded the area and Guo's family relocated south of theYangtze River,reachingXuanchengand eventually settling in Jiankang (modernNanjing).Guo served as an omen-interpreter to military leaders and Eastern Jin chancellor Wang Dao before being appointed to official court positions in 318 and 320. Guo's mother died in 322, which caused Guo to resign his position and spend a year in mourning.In 323 Guo joined the staff of warlordWang Dun,who controlled much of the modernHunanandHubeiareas, but was executed in 324 after he failed to produce a favorable omen toward Wang's planned usurpation of the Eastern Jin throne.

Influence

Guo was likely the most learned person of his era, and is one of the foremost commentators on ancient Chinese works.He wrote commentaries to theChu Ci,Shan Hai Jing,Mu Tianzi Zhuan,Fangyan,Erya,Sima Xiangru's "Fuon the Excursion Hunt of the Son of Heaven ", and three ancient dictionaries:Cang Jie,Yuanli,andBoxue.Guo's commentaries, which identify and explain rare words and allusions, are often the only surviving sources of these glosses, and without which leave the original work mostly incomprehensible to modern readers.In particular, Guo's commentaries to theErya,Shan Hai Jing,andFangyanare considered sufficiently authoritative that they are included in all standard versions of those texts.Without his glosses and commentaries, large portions of these texts would be unintelligible today.

Guo was also an accomplished poet, and his 11 survivingfupoemsdisplay his extensive command of the ancient Chinese language.One of them, entitled "Fuon theYangtze River"(Jiang fuGiang phú ), used the image of the Yangtze to praise the restoration of the Jin dynasty, and established his reputation as a leading literary figure.His best known poems are a series entitled "Wandering as an Immortal" (youxianDu tiên ), of which 14 survive.The bibliography monograph of the Records of theSui dynastylist Guo's works in 17 volumes; by theTang dynastyonly 10 volumes remained, and by the end of theSong dynastyall of Guo's writings not included in theWen Xuanhad been lost.All that remains today are his writings from theWen Xuanand reconstructions from quotations in other surviving works.

References

Works cited

• Knechtges, David R.(2010a). "From the Eastern Han through the Western Jin (AD 25–317)". In Owen, Stephen (ed.).The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume 1: To 1375.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.pp. 116–198.ISBN978-0-521-11677-0.
• ——— (2010b). "Guo Pu quách phác". In Knechtges, David R.; Chang, Taiping (eds.).Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide, Part One.Leiden: Brill. pp. 301–307.ISBN978-90-04-19127-3.
• Pease, Jonathan (1998). "Kuo P'u quách phác". In Nienhauser, William (ed.).The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, Volume 2.Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 71–74.ISBN957-638-516-4.
• Tian, Xiaofei (2010). "From the Eastern Jin through the early Tang (317–649)". In Owen, Stephen (ed.).The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume 1: To 1375.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 199–285.ISBN978-0-521-11677-0.
• Wei, Fengjuan,"Guo Pu".Encyclopedia of China(Chinese Literature Edition), 1st ed.

External links

• Works by Pu GuoatProject Gutenberg
• www.chinaknowledge.de entry on Guo Pu
• Works by or about Pu Guoat theInternet Archive
• Qin Lore
• Guo Pu
• The Book of BurialArchived2016-03-03 at theWayback Machine