27 Facts About Guo Moruo

Guo Moruo, courtesy name Dingtang, was a Chinese author, poet, historian, archaeologist, and government official.

Guo Moruo was a daughter of Du Zhouzhang, a holder of the coveted jinshi degree.

Guo Moruo married into the Guo family in 1872, when she was fourteen.

Guo Moruo had the childhood name Guo Moruo Wenbao, given due to a dream his mother had on the night he was conceived.

When in the fall of 1903 a number of public schools were established in Sichuan's capital, Chengdu, the Guo Moruo children started going there to study.

Guo Moruo Kaiwen continued to be a role model for his younger brothers when in February 1905 he left for Japan, to study law and administration at Tokyo Imperial University on a provincial government scholarship.

Guo Moruo went on to a middle school in 1907, acquiring by this time the reputation of an academically gifted student but a troublemaker.

Guo Moruo's peers respected him and often elected him a delegate to represent their interests in front of the school administration.

Guo Moruo was glad to be expelled, as he now had a reason to go to the provincial capital Chengdu to continue his education there.

In October 1911, Guo Moruo was surprised by his mother announcing that a marriage was arranged for him.

Guo Moruo went along with his family's wishes, marrying his appointed bride, Zhang Jinghua, sight-unseen in Shawan in March 1912.

When visiting a friend of his hospitalized in Saint Luke's Hospital in Tokyo, in the summer of 1916, Guo Moruo fell in love with Sato Tomiko, a Japanese woman from a Christian family, who worked at the hospital as a student nurse.

Guo Moruo was more interested in literature than medicine, however.

Guo Moruo co-founded the Creation Society in Shanghai, which promoted modern and vernacular literature.

Guo Moruo was involved in the Communist Nanchang Uprising and fled to Japan after its failure.

Guo Moruo stayed there for 10 years studying Chinese ancient history.

Guo Moruo was the first President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and remained so from its founding in 1949 until his death in 1978.

Guo Moruo was one of the leaders of China's delegation to the December 1957 Afro-Asian Peoples' Solidarity Conference, along with Liu Liangmo, Liu Ningyi, and Ji Chaoding.

Guo Moruo then turned to writing poetry praising Mao's wife Jiang Qing and the Cultural Revolution and denounced former friends and colleagues as counterrevolutionaries.

Two of his sons, Guo Moruo Minying and Guo Moruo Shiying, "committed suicide" in 1967 and 1968 following "criticism" or persecution by Red Guards.

Guo Moruo enjoyed all the privileges of the highest-ranking party elites, including residence in a manor house once owned by a Qing official, a staff of assigned servants, a state limousine, and other perks.

Guo Moruo maintained a large collection of antique furniture and curios in his home.

Guo Moruo was visibly frail and it would be the last time he was seen in public before his death three months later.

Guo Moruo was held in high regard in Chinese contemporary literature, history and archaeology.

Guo Moruo once called himself the Chinese answer to Goethe and this appraisal was widely accepted.

Guo Moruo was criticised as the first of "Four Contemporary Shameless Writers".

Guo Moruo had five children with Sato Tomiko and six with Yu Liqun.