Scholars › Philosopher / Thinker
Gu Hongming
Penang-born, Edinburgh-educated scholar who served Zhang Zhidong for two decades, translated the Analects into English and wrote The Spirit of the Chinese People
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 Ming Tangsheng · Zi Hongming
Gu Hongming, born Gu Tangsheng with the courtesy name Hongming, was born in 1857 in Penang, British Malaya, to a family from Tong'an in Fujian. Sent to Europe as a boy, he took an MA at the University of Edinburgh in 1877 and studied further in Germany and France. In 1885 he joined Zhang Zhidong's staff as secretary for foreign affairs, a post he held for more than twenty years, during which he published English translations of the Analects and the Doctrine of the Mean. His English book The Spirit of the Chinese People (Chunqiu dayi), published in 1915, defended Confucian ethics and old customs and found many readers in Germany. In the early Republic he taught English literature at Peking University, still wearing his queue and old-style gown, and he died in Beijing in 1928.
Life and times
Dates 1857 CE–1928 CE