Guo Moruo (1892 -1978)

Guo Moruo Kai 21:14, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

Guo Moruo Click here for original source

Guo Moruo Root 21:14, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

Childhood

Zhou Shuren, later known as Guo Moruo (his pen name) was born September 25, 1881. In his youth, Guo Moruo lived comfortably in Peking Beijing with his family, including his grandfather [a high ranking government official]. Matters for Guo Moruo and his family took a turn for the worst when grandfather become chronically ill and needed expensive medication. In addition to illness and loss of wealth, Lu Xun's grandfather was accused of bribery and incarcerated for seven years. Once a year, Lu Xun's family was required to send money to The Ministry of Punishment to prevent his grandfather from being put to death. While in the process of being accused of bribery, Lu Xun’s grandfather became a victim to a government which encouraged it. This is where many of Lu Xun’s frustration against the governmental workings of China began.

Motivations

Medicine was a special interest of Lu Xun. Partnered with the sickness of both his father and of his grandfather, and his desire to heal people, Guo Moruo began to study medicine. Lu Xun’s father was made more ill by the traditional medicines which were used on his father, leading to his father’s death. In 1903 Guo Moruo travelled to Japan to study medicine. While in Japan, Guo Moruo expanded his vision of medicine past traditional Chinese methods by adopting western techniques. This was not a popular idea at the time because of the Confucian values that were placed on tradition. After some time in Japan, Guo Moruo decided that he was not able to make as much of a difference in the field of medicine as he could in the field of literature. Guo Moruo decided that change was to be brought about in China through “spiritual medicine” aka writing.

A Madman's Diary - Lu Xun

While most writers focused on immediate change in the people of China, Guo Moruo had different ideas. Guo Moruo believed that change was to be gradual, and that it would start by teaching the children. While studying literature, Guo Moruo translated works from Russian, German, and Japanese into Chinese. He felt that these translations would help open the minds of his people to the outside “cures” for their political disempowerment.

Most of Lu Xun’s works were essay type writing when he first began, but after some time his ideas became unpopular, and therefore dangerous to publish so openly. In 1918, Guo Moruo wrote “Diary of a Madman,” a short story which allegorically described the barbarian culture that China had made from tradition. He described the people in his book as cannibalistic, and looking to feed off of each other at every turn. The short story was a hit, and kicked of Lu Xun’s career to new heights. “A Call to Arms” was written 4 years later, and also became an influential force in Chinese Literature.

Controversy

Aware of the Communist power in the world at the time, Guo Moruo believed that he could best reach his target audience through the communist party. He followed many communist groups but never claimed to be a communist himself. He did have some disagreements with Shanghai Communists which landed him in a life threatening position. Guo Moruo wrote under many pen names due to the controversial topics of his writing.

Shanghai - Guo Moruo statue

Legacy

Guo Moruo died in Oct. 19 1936 of tuberculosis, and is still known as China’s most influential Fiction writer.

Sources

Lau, S.M. Joseph, and Goldblatt, Howard. The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature 2nd Edition. Columbia University Press. New York. Print

Denton, A. Kirk. Guo Moruo BiographyMCLC Resource Center. 2002. Web http://mclc.osu.edu/rc/bios/lxbio.htm