Wang Guowei
| Wang Guowei | |
|---|---|
 The Monument of Wang Guowei in Tsinghua University |
|
| Born | 2 December 1877 Haining, Zhejiang |
| Died | 2 June 1927 (aged 49) Kunming Lake, Summer Palace, Beijing |
| Cause of death | Suicide by drowning |
Wang Guowei (traditional Chinese: 王國維; simplified Chinese: 王国维; pinyin: Wáng Guówéi; Wade–Giles: Wang Kuo-wei) (December 2, 1877 — June 2, 1927), courtesy name Jing'an (靜安) or Baiyu (伯隅), was a Chinese scholar, writer and poet. A versatile and original scholar, he made important contributions to the studies of ancient history, epigraphy, philology, vernacular literature and literary theory.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
A native of Haining, Zhejiang, he went to Shanghai to work as a proofreader for a newspaper, after failing to pass the Imperial Examination in his hometown, at the age of 22. There he studied in the Dongwen Xueshe (東文學社), a Japanese language teaching school, and became a protégé of Luo Zhenyu. Sponsored by Luo, he left for Japan in 1901, studying natural sciences in Tokyo. Back in China one year later, he began to teach in different colleges, and devoted himself to the study of German idealism. He fled to Japan with Luo when the Xinhai Revolution took place in 1911. He returned to China in 1916, but remained loyal to the overthrown Manchu emperor. In 1924, he was appointed professor by the Tsinghua University. In 1927, he drowned himself in Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace before the revolutionary army entered Beijing.[1][2][3] A famous epitaphy for Wang was written by Chen Yinke.
[edit] Legacy
Wang focused on the studies of Chinese vernacular literature during the early year of his career. When he became convinced that Schopenhauer's metaphysics were not believable, he turned for solace to critical and philological studies of the novel Dream of the Red Chamber, as well as writing a concise history of the theaters of the Song and Yuan dynasties. [4] Later he changed his academic direction, focusing on philology and ancient history. His works on ancient history and philology are collected in Guantang Jilin (觀堂集林).
[edit] References
- ^ Bonney, Joey (1986). Wang Kuo-wei : an intellectual biography. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674945948.
- ^ Cheng, Zhongying; Nicholas Bunnin (2002). Contemporary Chinese Philosophy. Blackwell Publishers. p. 37. ISBN 0631217258.
- ^ "Humanities reborn at Tsinghua". China Daily. 2003-12-30. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-12/30/content_294411.htm. Retrieved 16 April 2009.
- ^ Benjamin Schwartz, "Themes in intellectual history: May Fourth and After," Cambridge History of China Volume 12 Republican China 1912-1949 Pt 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 418
[edit] External links
- (Chinese) Biography and bibliography
- (Chinese) Biography
- Works by Wang Guowei at Project Gutenberg
