Writers › Writer / Poet

Gui Youguang

Ming essayist from Kunshan who taught for two decades before passing the metropolitan examination at sixty, known for plain prose about family life such as 'Xiangji Studio'

Also known as Zi Xifu · Hao Zhenchuan · Gui Xi Fu

Gui Youguang, courtesy name Xifu and literary name Zhenchuan, came from Kunshan in Suzhou prefecture. He passed the provincial examination in 1540 but then failed the metropolitan examination eight times, meanwhile teaching by the river at Anting in Jiading, where his students often numbered several hundred. He finally passed in 1565 at the age of sixty and became magistrate of Changxing in Zhejiang; at odds with his superiors, he was moved in 1569 to an assistant prefect's post in Shunde overseeing horse administration. In 1570, recommended by Gao Gong and Zhao Zhenji, he became an assistant minister of the Nanjing Court of the Imperial Stud, working in the Grand Secretariat on the Veritable Records of the Jiajing emperor, and he died the next year. His prose dwells on domestic life, as in "Xiangji Studio" and his sketch of his late mother. Wang Shizhen, who led the literary world and had long opposed his views, in old age wrote a eulogy ranking him with Han Yu and Ouyang Xiu.

Life and times

  1. 1507 CEBornMing
  2. 1571 CEDied

Works

  1. Literature · Prose23
    1. Record of the Xiangji StudioMingGui Youguang's Ming essay on his old family study and memories of grandmother, mother and wife
    2. Biographical Sketch of My Late MotherMingGui Youguang's plain sketch of his mother, who died young after years of childbearing
    3. Record of the Painting of the Wu HillsMingGui Youguang on a departing magistrate's painting: neither he nor his people can forget
    4. Record of the Canglang PavilionMingGui Youguang on a temple that became a pavilion again, and on what truly lets a name endure
    5. Birthday Preface for Zhou XianzhaiMingGui Youguang honours his mother's family's old tutor at eighty and remembers that household
    6. +18 more
      1. Birthday Preface for Lady Gu, Mother of the Wangs, at SixtyMingGui Youguang lets a son tell how his widowed mother, now sixty, brought the family through
      2. Birthday Preface for the Lady of the Gu House at EightyMingGui Youguang honours a grand guardian's widow at eighty and calls the couple's fortune complete
      3. On the Room Named Keeping to the PloughMingGui Youguang explains an old farmer's room name and sets the ploughman's substance above names
      4. On the Sobriquet Two StonesMingGui Youguang explains a magistrate's sobriquet Two Stones and urges rule by rites and music
      5. On the Style Name of Zhang XiongMingGui Youguang styles Zhang Xiong 'Ravine' after Laozi: know the male, keep to the female
      6. Biography of Two Filial Sons of the Gui ClanMingGui Youguang writes up two humble salt-pedlar kinsmen whose devotion outlasted cruelty and want
      7. Biography of the Old Man of YunxiMingGui Youguang recalls a creekside recluse who gave him his books and seems to grow younger
      8. Biography of the Chaste Widow TaoMingGui Youguang on a widow who nursed her mother-in-law for nine years and died on the same day
      9. Biography of the Martyred Wife WangMingGui Youguang on a neighbour's young wife who hanged herself eight days after her husband died
      10. Biography of the Chaste Widow WeiMingGui Youguang on a poor Jiujiang widow who raised a sickly son and mourned her husband for life
      11. Grave Marker for My Late Friend Fang SizengMingGui Youguang mourns a brilliant friend whose thwarted pride drove him to wine and Buddhism
      12. Burial Note for HanhuaMingIn barely a hundred characters Gui Youguang recalls a young maid, and the wife he lost
      13. The Pavilion of Longing for My SonMingGui Youguang builds a pavilion for his son, dead at sixteen, and refuses to let him go
      14. The Village-View TowerMingGui Youguang at his late friend's son's tower, mourning old days and urging the son on
      15. Written on the Wall of the Wild Crane StudioMingGui Youguang on a literary gathering at a hillside studio and the friend who stayed on
      16. The Weilei PavilionMingGui Youguang names a pavilion after a Zhuangzi tale and laughs at his own obscurity
      17. The Roll of Changxing MagistratesMingGui Youguang compiles a stone roll of Changxing's magistrates and mourns names time has lost
      18. The Hall of Fulfilling Early WishesMingGui Youguang on a rebuilt Song hall and why high officials long for a retirement they never get
  2. Literature · Sayings1
    1. The Loquat Tree Now Tall as a CanopyMingLine from Gui Youguang's Record of Xiangji Studio: his late wife's tree, now a canopy

Family tree

  1. Direct kin
    Zhou Gui
    Mother
    Gui Youguang