Guo Moruo | |
---|---|
Born |
Guo Kaizhen 郭開貞 16 November 1892 Leshan, Sichuan, China |
Died | 12 June 1978 Beijing, China |
(aged 85)
Alma mater | Chengdu Shishi High School |
Spouse(s) | Zhang Jinghua (1890-1980, m.1912) Sato Tomiko (1894-1995) Yu Liqun (1916-1979, m.1939) |
Children | 8 sons and 3 daughters |
Awards | 1948 Research Fellow of the Academia Sinica |
Guo Moruo (Chinese: 郭沫若; pinyin: Guō Mòruò; Wade–Giles: Kuo Mo-jo; November 16, 1892 – June 12, 1978), courtesy name Dingtang (鼎堂), was a Chinese author, poet, historian, archaeologist, and government official from Sichuan, China.
Guo, originally named Guo Kaizhen, was born on November 10 or 16, in the small town of Shawan. Shawan is located on the Dadu River some 40 km southwest from what was then called the city of Jiading (Lu) (Chia-ting (Lu), 嘉定(路)), and now is the central urban area of the prefecture level city of Leshan in Sichuan Province.
At the time of Guo's birth, Shawan was a town of some 180 families.
Guo's father's ancestors were Hakkas from Ninghua County in Tingzhou fu, near the western border of Fujian. They moved to Sichuan in the second half of the 17th century, after Sichuan had lost much of its population to the rebels/bandits of Zhang Xianzhong (ca. 1605-1647). According to family legend, the only possessions that Guo's ancestors brought to Sichuan were things they could carry on their backs. Guo's great-grandfather, Guo Xianlin, was the first in the family to achieve a degree of prosperity. Guo Xianlin's sons established the Guo clan as the leaders of the local river shipping business, and thus important people in that entire region of Sichuan. It was only then that the Guo clan members became able to send their children to school.
Guo's father, one of whose names may possibly have been Guo Mingxing (1854–1939), had to drop out of school at the age of 13 and then spent six months as an apprentice at a salt well. Thereafter he entered his father's business, a shrewd and smart man who achieved some local renown as a Chinese medical doctor, traded successfully in oils, opium, liquor, and grain and operated a money changing business. His business success allowed him to increase the family's real estate and salt well holdings.