Guo Pu

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Guo.

Hai Jing, Mu Tianzi Zhuan, Fangyan, Erya, Sima Xiangru's "Fu on the Excursion Hunt of the Son of Heaven
, and three ancient dictionaries: Cang Jie, Yuanli, and
Boxue.* [6] Guo's commentaries, which identify and explain rare words and allusions, are often the only surviving sources of these glosses, and without which leave the
original work mostly incomprehensible to modern readers.* [6] In particular, Guo's commentaries to the Erya,
Shan Hai Jing, and Fangyan are considered suciently
authoritative that they are included in all standard versions of those texts.* [6] Without his glosses and commentaries, large portions of these texts would be unintelligible
today.* [7]

Guo Pu (Chinese: ; WadeGiles: Kuo P'u; AD

276 324), courtesy name Jingchun (), was a Chinese writer and scholar of the Eastern Jin period, and
is best known as one of China's foremost commentators
on ancient texts. Guo was a Taoist mystic, geomancer,
collector of strange tales, editor of old texts, and erudite commentator. He was the rst commentator of the
Shan Hai Jing and so probably, with the noted Han bibliographer Liu Xin, was instrumental in preserving this
valuable mythological and religious text.* [1] Guo Pu was
the well educated son of a governor. He was a natural
historian and a prolic writer of the Jin dynasty. He is
the author of The Book of Burial, the rst-ever and the
most authoritative source of fengshui doctrine and the
rst book to address the concept of Fengshui in the history of China, making Guo Pu the rst person historically
to dene Fengshui, and therefore, Guo Pu is usually called
as the father of Fengshui in China.* [2]* [3]* [4]

Guo was also an accomplished poet, and his 11 surviving

fu poems display his extensive command of the ancient
Chinese language.* [8] One of them, entitled "Fu on the
Yangtze River" (Jiang fu ), used the image of the
Yangtze to praise the restoration of the Jin dynasty, and
established his reputation as a leading literary gure.* [9]
His best known poems are a series entitled Wandering as an Immortal(youxian ), of which 14 survive.* [8] The bibliography monograph of the Records of
the Sui dynasty list Guo's works in 17 volumes; by the
1 Life
Tang dynasty only 10 volumes remained, and by the end
of the Song dynasty all of Guo's writings not included in
A native of Wenxi County, in what is now souththe Wen Xuan had been lost.* [8] All that remains today
west Shanxi Province, Guo studied Daoist occultism and
are his writings from the Wen Xuan and reconstructions
prognostication in his youth, and mainly worked as a
from quotations in other surviving works.* [8]
prognosticator for various local ocials and leaders, interpreting omens and portents in order to predict the success or failure of various endeavors.* [5] In AD 307 a
Xiongnu clan invaded the area and Guo's family relo- 3 Notes
cated south of the Yangtze River, reaching Xuancheng
and eventually settling in Jiankang (modern Nanjing).* [5] Footnotes
Guo served as an omen-interpreter to military leaders and
Eastern Jin chancellor Wang Dao before being appointed [1] Mair, Victor H. (2000). 2. The Shorter Columbia
Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature. New York:
to ocial court positions in 318 and 320. Guo's mother
Columbia University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-231died in 322, which caused Guo to resign his position and
11998-6.
spend a year in mourning.* [5] In 323 Guo joined the sta
of warlord Wang Dun, who controlled much of the mod- [2] Zhang, Juwen. A Translation of the Ancient Chinese 'The
ern Hunan and Hubei area, but was executed in 324 afBook of Burial (Zang Shu)' by Guo Pu (276-324). Retrieved 11-07-2007
ter he failed to produce a favorable omen toward Wang's
planned usurpation of the Eastern Jin throne.* [5]
[3] http://news.nanjing.fang.com/2008-04-16/1667260.htm

[4] http://www.hokming.com/
fengshuimaster-legendmaster-kksck.htm

Inuence

[5] Knechtges (2010b), pp. 301-302.

Guo was likely the most learned person of his era, and
is one of the foremost commentators on ancient Chinese
works.* [6] He wrote commentaries to the Chu Ci, Shan

[6] Knechtges (2010b), p. 302.

[7] Knechtges (2010a), p. 184.

[8] Knechtges (2010b), pp. 302-303.

[9] Tian (2010), p. 204.

References
Knechtges, David R. (2010a). From the Eastern Han through the Western Jin (AD 25317)". In
Owen, Stephen. The Cambridge History of Chinese
Literature, Volume 1: To 1375. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 116198. ISBN 9780-521-11677-0.
(2010b). Guo Pu ". In Knechtges,
David R.; Chang, Taiping. Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide, Part
One. Leiden: Brill. pp. 301307. ISBN 978-9004-19127-3.
Pease, Jonathan (1998). Kuo P'u ". In Nienhauser, William. The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, Volume 2. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press. pp. 7174. ISBN 957638-516-4.
Tian, Xiaofei (2010). From the Eastern
Jin through the early Tang (317649)". In Owen,
Stephen. The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume 1: To 1375. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. pp. 199285. ISBN 978-0-52111677-0.
Wei, Fengjuan,Guo Pu. Encyclopedia of China
(Chinese Literature Edition), 1st ed.

External links
Works by Pu Guo at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Pu Guo at Internet Archive
Qin Lore
Guo Pu
The Book of Burial

EXTERNAL LINKS

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