53 Facts About Gu Jiegang

Gu Jiegang was a Chinese historian, philologist, and folklorist, noted for his critiques of traditional historiography.

Gu Jiegang became involved in radical politics following the 1911 Revolution, but grew disillusioned and began to focus on historical studies.

Gu Jiegang was admitted to Peking University, where became interested in critique of the classical histories, inspired by academics such as Wang Guowei and Hu Shih.

Gu Jiegang later edited the large volume of responses he received in the aftermath into the first volume of the Gushi Bian, a seven-volume work published from 1926 to 1944.

Gu Jiegang moved to Yenching University in 1929, where he taught philology courses and edited several periodicals, including a historical geography journal he founded with a student.

Gu Jiegang served in various educational and editorial positions following the war.

Gu Jiegang was condemned during the Cultural Revolution; while nominally still a professor, his position was demoted to janitorial duties.

Gu Jiegang returned to academics after he was tasked by Zhou Enlai to participate in the production of modern punctuated versions of the orthodox histories.

Gu Jiegang was gradually rehabilitated during the 1970s, and continued academic work until his death in 1980.

On 8 May 1893, Gu Jiegang was born in Daoyi, a village in eastern Suzhou, Jiangsu.

Gu Jiegang's grandfather died around this time, leaving Gu to pursue increasingly heterodox study material, taking particular inspiration from the work of Tan Sitong.

Gu Jiegang was disappointed by academic conservatism at Beida and ignored his coursework in favour of attending Peking opera.

Gu Jiegang was introduced to the conflict between the New and Old Texts through the lectures of Zhang Binglin, one of the most influential philologists of the period.

Gu Jiegang was inspired by Hu's heterodox views of Chinese history, and lured his conservative roommate Fu Sinan into attending his lectures.

Gu Jiegang came to believe that Chinese historians needed to divorce themselves from the orthodox histories and draw from both Chinese and Western historical traditions in order to better understand China as a nation.

Gu Jiegang died of tuberculosis the following year, leaving Gu depressed and in poor health.

Gu Jiegang recuperated in Suzhou for some time before returning to Beijing near the end of the year.

Gu Jiegang graduated from Beida in 1920, and was appointed the assistant librarian of the institute.

Gu Jiegang briefly became an assistant lecturer at Beida's newly-founded postgraduate institute in 1921.

Gu Jiegang focused on past scholars, especially from the Qing period, who challenged orthodox historical narratives.

Gu Jiegang served as the substitute editor-in-chief of the Folksong Weekly in 1924 and early 1925.

Gu Jiegang produced a major study on the legend of Lady Meng Jiang, editing together various folk songs, drawings, epigraphs, and Baojuan based on the story.

Gu Jiegang continued work on the, publishing its first volume in 1926, alongside an autobiography which was later translated into English by Arthur W Hummel Sr.

Gu Jiegang traveled to nearby Quanzhou to survey temples to the local Land God.

Gu Jiegang later accused Gu of participating in the repression of student demonstrators while at Xiamen.

Gu Jiegang served as supervisor of its journal Folklore Weekly alongside Rong Zhaozu, while Zhong Jingwen served as its editor.

Gu Jiegang concurrently worked at the National Academy of Peking, one of China's main research institutes.

Gu Jiegang taught courses on the scholarship of the Han dynasty and the Book of Documents.

In March 1931, Gu Jiegang founded a historical geography journal with his graduate student Tan Qixiang.

Gu Jiegang grew more receptive to nationalistic views of history, seeing it as useful to counter Japanese propaganda.

Gu Jiegang worked with the Kuomintang to promote the myths which he had previously discredited.

Gu Jiegang considered stepping away from academic research, and began working with publishing businesses.

Gu Jiegang attempted to reestablish the Yugong Society in 1943 with several of his colleagues, but was unsuccesful.

Gu Jiegang moved to Shanghai in May 1949, where he transferred between various teaching positions.

Gu Jiegang was appointed to various honorary postings in the early years of the People's Republic, serving as Suzhou's delegate to the Regional People's Representatives' Conference from 1950 to 1953, and as honorary representative to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in 1954.

Gu Jiegang was called upon to give an address condemning Hu in 1950.

Gu Jiegang declared Hu his "personal and political enemy", although mainly recounted experiences at Beida, and reserved strong criticism to a small portion at the end of the statement.

Gu Jiegang praised the Communist Party, firmly condemned Hu Shih, and criticized his own past disagreements with Lu Xun in the mid-1920s, stating that he was overly academic and individualistic in the face of Lu's "progressive, revolutionary" views.

Gu Jiegang fell ill in May 1957, and spent the rest of the year in Qingdao to recuperate, only returning to Beijing the following January.

Gu Jiegang welcomed a number of technological advances in archaeology, including computers and radiocarbon dating, believing that they would increase the pace of scientific progress.

Gu Jiegang's library was sealed off, leaving him to continue his studies on the Book of Documents based off the small amount of material which survived alongside his own memory of the classic.

Gu Jiegang recalled a large number of academics from the countryside and retirement to work on the project, including Gu alongside other noted historians such as Bai Shouyi, Wang Zhonghan, Yang Bojun, and Zhang Zhenglang.

Gu Jiegang additionally served on the editorial boards of the journal Studies on the Dream of the Red Chamber and the periodical Historical Geography.

Gu Jiegang received visits from a number of historians, including western Sinologists, who had been largely shut-off from the country since the 1940s.

Gu Jiegang gave his body to the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences for research.

Gu Jiegang instead advocated for a pluralistic approach to historical studies incorporating a variety of sources.

Gu Jiegang was strongly critical of the idea of a golden age in China's ancient past, and saw the Five Classics not as authentic documents from the purported ancient past, but as lenses through which to analyze the Warring States and Han dynasty societies which produced the texts.

Gu Jiegang wrote that prior to the formalization of these texts, the Hundred Schools of Thought during the Warring States period offered a relatively free and open scholarly discourse.

Gu Jiegang dismissed the Qin dynasty's burning of books and burying of scholars as the main reason for this decline in scholarly discourse, instead positing that it had become too profitable for scholars not to work alongside the state; this led to scholars increasingly working to provide legitimacy and means of social control to the ruling class, leading to the domination of Confucianism as a state orthodoxy.

Gu Jiegang was sympathetic to skeptical historians such as Chen Mengjia and Yang Kuan, who argued against its existence, but wrote that it was difficult to assert that its existence was entirely falsified.

Gu Jiegang changed his theories on Yu's origins several times, alternatively attributing the myth to the Western Zhou or the Warring States period, but maintained that he originated as a mythological figure.

Gu Jiegang was strongly supportive of the incorporation of minority ethnic groups within the Chinese nation, although opposed historically to the concept of the Five Races descended from common mythic ancestors.

Gu Jiegang theorized that the Han ethnicity formed from the Qin dynasty's unification of China and use of commanderies as administrative divisions on the frontiers.