Gu Zuyu

Gu Zuyu

Gu Zuyu (1631-1692) was born in Changshu, Suzhou (now Suzhou, Jiangsu Province). His father was a member of the tan family in Changshu, so he was born in Changshu. He also called himself Changshu, the son of Gu Ruqian. He was born in 1631, the fourth year of Chongzhen reign of emperor Yizong of Ming Dynasty, and died in 1692, the thirty first year of Kangxi reign of emperor Shengzu of Qing Dynasty. He is a geographer and scholar in the early Qing Dynasty. Born in Changshu, Jiangsu Province, he is called Mr. Wanxi because his family is in Wanxi. Gu yewang, the forefather of Gu Zuyu, wrote Yu Zhi, and Gu Dadong, the great ancestor of Gu, wrote Jiu Bian Tu Shuo. Gu Wenyao, the great grandfather of Gu, and Gu rouqian, his father, were all familiar with Yu Zhi. Under the influence of his family, he devoted his life to history and geography, focusing on the study of historical geography and military geography.

Personal resume

Since 1659, Gu Zuyu referred to 21 histories, more than 100 local chronicles and a large number of other documents, and tried his best to "look at the city outline, follow the mountains and rivers, check the roads, and ask the Customs Law" to examine the similarities and differences on the spot. It took more than 30 years to compile a 130 volume, 2.8 million word summary of history reading Fangyu. The first 123 volumes narrate the situation of states in the past dynasties (Fig. 1). Based on the administrative divisions in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, the first 123 volumes narrate the territory evolution of provinces, governments, prefectures and counties, the situation of mountains and rivers, urban towns, fortresses and dangerous passes, Jinliang roads, etc. The latter six volumes narrate the similarities and differences between Sichuan and Duzhou, "the context of zhaojiuzhou". The last volume narrates the division, which shows the meaning of "overlooking and looking up". There are four volumes of "map essentials", including the general map of the whole country at that time, the sub map of each province, the sub map of the frontier, and the sub map of the Yellow River, sea transportation and water transportation. It is the most representative work of China's evolutionary geography, and also an important reference for the study of China's historical geography and military geography (Fig. 2). In his later years, he participated in the compilation of the unified annals of the Qing Dynasty. Since the Song Dynasty, there have been some books focusing on the evolution of geography, especially since the end of Ming Dynasty. Scholars feel that "empty talk about the nature of the mind" harms the country and the people, and advocate the practice of learning. Gu Yanwu once wrote 120 volumes of the book of diseases of the prefectures and states under the heaven, the main purpose of which is to "ensure the quality of the work is feasible today, but not empty words of the past.". "The summary of Fang Yu's history reading" is a detailed discussion of "the mountains and rivers are dangerous and easy, the ancient and modern use of troops to defend and capture, the rise and fall of success and failure of success and loss". The former focuses on the relationship between geographical conditions and politics and economy, while the latter focuses on the relationship between geographical conditions and military affairs. Gu Zuyu once said in a poem: "ChongTong is well-known under the account, and it is also popular in longzhun army. It's wrong to travel and hide for half of your life. How can you talk about war in the world? " The shallow meaning of this poem is that Xiang Yu is famous in his army (in historical records, Xiang Yu's heavy pupil refers to Xiang Yu), and he can walk freely in Liu Bang's Army (Liu Bang's nickname is long zhunggong, which is big nose). It's a pity that what I've done for half my life is wrong. How can I talk on paper. This poem is just a footnote to his lifelong pursuit.

note appended

Attachment: 288 biographies of Gu Zuyu in the draft of Qing Dynasty history are as follows: Gu Zuyu, the word is back to the beginning. Rou Qian is good at history. He said: "in the Ming Dynasty, Yi Tong was determined to fight, defend and capture the key points. All kinds of mountains and rivers were unknown, and the lines were broken again and again. The origin was unprepared." Zu Yu inherited his ambition and wrote and read 130 volumes of Shi Fang Yu's summary. All the books about Zhi Fang and Guang Yu, which inherited and attacked the fallacy, were refuted. Detailed in the mountains and rivers, and ancient and modern war to keep the track of success or failure, and the scenery are in the brief. It was 29 years old when the manuscript was created and 50 years old when it was finished. Wei Xi, the capital of Ningdu, sighed: "this book is unique for thousands of years!" His book, together with Mei wending's Almanac and Li Qingnan's northern history, is known as the three great books. Zuyu and Xi were friends of Jinshi, Xike died, and Zuyu brokered his funeral. Xu Qianxue compiled a unified annals by imperial edict and extended it to Zu Yu. He recommended it and made efforts to stop the chaos. Finally home.

Main works

It took more than 30 years for Gu Zuyu to write the summary of history reading Fang Yu. He suffered from the pain of national subjugation, but he always insisted on his integrity. He did not seek fame at the time and wealth in the world. He lived in the environment of "poverty and hardship" for a long time and put his heart on his writing. It is really commendable. His purpose is very clear, that is to preserve the documents of his native country, so as to contribute to the great cause of anti Qing and restoration of Ming Dynasty in the future. Wei Xi, his best friend in Ningdu, Jiangxi Province, knows him very well and thinks that his "deep thinking and farsightedness lie beyond words". When he began to write the "summary", there were some verses such as "the hungry grass passes through the Autumn Window forever, the empty mountain has the cry", "the poor iron lock at the bottom of the river, still like to caress the jin'ou in his palm". It can be seen that he wrote the book with infinite pain. "Summary" is a historical geography monograph which describes the evolution of geography and the situation of war. It is not only a must read book for historical geography researchers, but also an indispensable historical book for historical researchers. Because its writing style is easy to review, it can also be used as a reference book of historical geography. There are 130 volumes in the book and four volumes in the appendix map essentials, with a total of more than 2.8 million words. According to the administrative divisions of the late Ming Dynasty, it narrates the historical and geographical evolution and records the historical facts in detail, which can be divided into four parts: the first part, nine volumes of the state situation of the past dynasties, arranged in historical order, records the political divisions and evolution of the States, prefectures, prefectures and counties in the three dynasties of Tang and Yu, spring and autumn and Warring States, Qin, Han, Three Kingdoms, Jin, southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang, song, yuan and Ming, So that "scholars can play, and the division and integration of the state, the importance of the situation, clear in the middle, and then can be analyzed in detail, everywhere through.". The second part, the northern and southern Zhili 13 provinces, the provincial summary of 114 volumes, records Zhili, Jiangnan, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Huguang, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and other provinces of the state, county, mountain, Sichuan, Guan, Wei location and the original story. Each provincial volume of the capital is entitled with a general preface to the general situation, discussing its most important point in history, so as to make the situation of the whole province clear. Each volume has its own compendium and notes. Each government also imitates this example, and the analysis is more detailed. Each county is under the jurisdiction of the main mountains, passes, bridges, post and towns. For example, Miyun County in Zhili (now Beijing City) not only lists the main mountains and rivers such as Miyun mountain, Baitan mountain, Wuling Mountain, jiuweiling mountain, Baihe River, Chaohe River and Yaoshui, but also records the abandoned counties such as Baitan, yaoyang, Liuxi, Anshi, yanle and Xingtang, Yuyang City and the important places such as Gubeikou, shitanglingguan, baimaguan, caojiazhai, waizilingguan and emeishanzhai There are more than ten places, such as the stone craftsman camp, Lijiazhuang, Baoan Town, Jingou hall, etc. He also made his own note under each place name, such as the note of "Abolishing the county in the Tang Dynasty": "in the east of the county, the prefecture belongs to the county. Liao Zhi, Taizu abaoji plundered Dingzhou, broken the Xingtang, to drive its people, north to Tanzhou, choose Kuang Tuju, where set ten villages, still known as Xingtang County. Gold is useless. " Another example is the note of "Yuyang city": "Kong Yingda is in the south of the county, where Qin Prefecture governs. Second, he left his post to guard Yuyang, which is also the city. " (Volume 11, Zhonghua Book Company edition, Volume 1, pages 511-517) the third part, Volume 6 of chuandu, collects the records of mountains, rivers and rivers in the geography books of the past dynasties, and "reveals the context of Kyushu by the similarities and differences of chuandu". the fourth part, astronomy "Dividing Field", lists the historical records about the dividing field of stars. The four volumes of the appendix "an outline of maps" contain charts and tables from the provinces in the capital, the water transport in the border areas, and even the ocean, so as to show the context of the book. "Summary" of the capital situation of the past dynasties, the dangerous mountains and rivers, the deeds of war and defense, water conservancy and so on, can be up and down the ancient and modern, detailed discussion, both textual research and use. Its editing style is also quite novel. For example, the Zhou area chapter of the past dynasties takes the dynasties as the longitude and the geography as the latitude; the situation chapter of Beijing Province takes the geography as the longitude and the dynasties as the latitude, and the longitude and latitude interact. The most important feature of the summary is that it has a strong military geographical feature and the thought of running the society for practical use runs through all the time. Like his father rouqian, he was distressed that the rulers of the Ming Dynasty would not take advantage of the dangers of the mountains and rivers, and would not learn from the lessons of success or failure of ancient and modern military use. Therefore, this book describes in detail the dangers of mountains and rivers, the use of military force in ancient and modern times, the appropriateness of war and defense, the success or failure of the rise and fall, and the victory of scenery sightseeing, so as to contribute to the great cause of anti Qing and restoration in the future. It is because of this that Zhang Zhidong's bibliography answers listed it as a military strategist; Liang Qichao also believed that this book "is really a military geography of a very different genre" and "its original intention is to cover the use of national recovery" (academic history of China in recent 300 years, first edition of Chongqing rearranged by Zhonghua publishing house, 318 pages, 1943). Another characteristic of the "summary" is that it includes not only the evolution of the territory and administrative areas in the past dynasties, but also the changes of Physical Geography (such as the changes of rivers and canals) and economic geography (such as the changes of food and goods, farming and horse administration). He studied and wrote papers on the economy of the past dynasties, but unfortunately they were all lost. Fortunately, "the outline is only wrong in the article" (summary. General rules). Although he does not have a special column on the changes of economic geography, he still provides a lot of information for us to study economic geography, such as the changes of transportation, the rise and fall of cities, the increase and decrease of water transport and the transfer of economic centers. The book gives a brief overview of the characteristics of agricultural production in various provinces and regions, so that we can understand the general situation of agricultural development in the history of these regions. For example, when he talked about Sichuan Province, he said: "Shu Chuan is rich in soil, people and Yin, and there are plenty of shellfish. Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, up to the Southern Song Dynasty, taxes have been the highest in the world." (Volume 66, Sichuan 1, Chinese version, Volume 3, page 2853) as for the diversion of rivers and the changes of lakes, they directly affect all aspects of the local economy and are closely related to people's lives. This is not only discussed in all provinces and regions, but also in a special column,

Chinese PinYin : Gu Zu Yu