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Gu Jiegang
Historian from Suzhou who argued that ancient history was built up in layers by later tellers and edited the seven volumes of Debates on Ancient History
Mural of the event “Punctuating the Twenty-Four Histories”, which this person took part in.
The Twenty-Four Histories are the twenty-four standard histories from the Shiji to the Mingshi. The main editions in which the whole set had been printed were the Wuying Hall edition of the Qianlong reign, the Jinling Press edition of the late Qing and the Baina edition assembled by the Commercial Press in 1936, but none carried punctuation or sentence breaks. In 1958 Zhonghua Book Company began organising scholars from across the country to punctuate and collate the Twenty-Four Histories and the Draft History of Qing. In 1959 the punctuated Shiji, prepared under Gu Jiegang, was published; the other histories followed, and with the Songshi in 1978 the work was complete, after twenty years. The set became known as the 'green-cover edition'; those involved included scholars such as Gu Jiegang and Chen Yuan and editors such as Song Yunbin and Zhao Shouyan. A revision of the edition began in 2006.
Also known as Ming Jian
- Roles
- Historian
Gu Jiegang, originally named Songkun and with the courtesy name Mingjian, came from Suzhou and graduated in philosophy from Peking University in 1920. In 1923, in a letter to Qian Xuantong printed in the journal Dushu zazhi, he argued that ancient history had been built up in layers: the later the age, the longer the legendary past it described and the larger its heroes grew. The debates this provoked were gathered in Debates on Ancient History (Gushi bian), whose first volume appeared in 1926 and seventh in 1941. In 1934 he and Tan Qixiang started the fortnightly Yugong and its society for the study of historical geography. In 1954 he moved to the history institute of the Academy of Sciences in Beijing, and he later helped lead the punctuated editions of the Comprehensive Mirror (Zizhi tongjian) and the Twenty-Four Histories. He died in Beijing in December 1980.
Life and times
- 1893 CEBorn
Qing
Republican Era
Modern Era - 1958Punctuating the Twenty-Four Histories
Took partage 65In 1958 Zhonghua Book Company began organising scholars to punctuate and collate the Twenty-Four Histories and the Draft History of Qing; the punctuated Shiji appeared in 1959 and the Songshi in 1978, completing the set after twenty years. - 1980 CEDied
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