Guo Moruo
(1892–1978), Chinese intellectual. Born in Leshan, Sichuan Province, Guo Moruo (or Kuo Mo-jo) studied in Japan from 1914 to 1923 and graduated from Kyushu Imperial University with a medical degree. After returning to China, he began to write and became a famous poet, playwright, paleographer, historian, politician, short story writer, essayist, and translator. His collection of poetry, Nu Shen (The Goddesses; published in 1921), is generally regarded as the first significant book of poetry in modern China. His scholarly works on Chinese history and paleography are well regarded.
Guo founded the Chuang Zao She (Creation Society) with a small group of young and idealistic poets and writers who, like him, had recently studied in Japan. But although a writer and historian, Guo was also deeply involved in twentieth-century Chinese politics. During the Northern Expedition (1926–1927), a war that the Nationalists and Communists fought against the northern warlords, he served as a colonel and later a lieutenant general, in charge of public relations. In the Nanchang Uprising of August 1927, which gave birth to the Red Army, he served as director of public relations and during this period joined the Chinese Communist Party. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949, Guo Moruo served in many important positions, such as vice premier in charge of culture and education, president of the Chinese Academy of Science, president of the Chinese Writers' Association, vice president of the National People's Congress, and member of the Communist Party Central Committee.
Further Reading
Roy, David Tod. (1971) Kuo Mo-jo: The Early Years. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wang Xunzhao, Lu Zhengyan, Shao Hua, Xiao Binru, and Lin Minghua, eds. (1986) Guo Moruo Yanjiu Ziliao (Guo Moruo Studies). 3 vols. Beijing: China Social Sciences Publishing House.
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