Scholars › Philosopher / Thinker
Gu Yanwu
Ming loyalist scholar from Kunshan who refused Qing office, travelled the northern frontier to study geography, and wrote the Record of Daily Knowledge
A thatched pavilion open on three sides stands among tall bamboo; one person sits with their back turned at the veranda rail beside a zither and a stack of bamboo slips, while a stone path runs to a calm pond reflecting clouds and distant hills.
Also known as Ting Lin · Zhong Qing
Gu Yanwu, first named Jiang with the courtesy name Zhongqing, took the name Yanwu and the courtesy name Ningren after the Ming fell; scholars called him Master Tinglin. A native of Kunshan, he joined the Restoration Society in his youth. When Qing armies crossed the Yangzi in 1645 he joined the resistance around Kunshan, and his adoptive mother starved herself on hearing the city had fallen, charging him never to serve the new dynasty. From 1657 he travelled through Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi and Shaanxi, surveying passes and rivers and farming land north of Yanmen. He refused the special examination of 1678 and the Ming history commission, and died at Quwo in Shanxi early in 1682 after a fall from his horse. His Record of Daily Knowledge (Rizhi lu), his geography of the provinces and his Five Books on Phonology argue for practical, evidence-based learning. One line of the Rizhi lu on every commoner's duty to the realm was later condensed by Liang Qichao into a well-known slogan.
Life and times
Dates 1613 CE–1682 CE