Scholars › Philosopher / Thinker
Gui Guzi
Shadowy Warring States teacher called the Master of Ghost Valley, under whom the Shiji says Su Qin and Zhang Yi studied, and to whom the book Guiguzi is attributed
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 Wang Xu · Wang Chan
Guiguzi, the Master of Ghost Valley, is the shadowy teacher of the Warring States persuaders, and his real name and life are unknown. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) says that Su Qin went east to Qi to study under the Master of Ghost Valley, and that Zhang Yi had studied with Su Qin under the same teacher. Pei Yin's commentary quotes Xu Guang as saying that there was a place called Ghost Valley at Yangcheng in Yingchuan, probably where he lived. The claims that Sun Bin and Pang Juan were also his pupils, and the personal names Wang Xu and Wang Chan, come from later legend and are absent from the Shiji. The surviving book Guiguzi, on the arts of opening and closing and of sounding out a ruler, is not listed in the Han imperial catalogue and first appears among the persuaders' works in the Sui history's bibliography, in three scrolls with a commentary ascribed to Huangfu Mi.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; mid–Warring States