Guo Pu

Guo was likely the most learned person of his era, and is one of the foremost commentators on ancient Chinese works. He wrote commentaries to the Chu Ci, Shan 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. 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. In particular, Guo's commentaries to the Erya, Shan Hai Jing, and Fangyan are considered sufficiently authoritative that they are included in all standard versions of those texts. Without his glosses and commentaries, large portions of these texts would be unintelligible today. Guo was also an accomplished poet, and his 11 surviving fu poems display his extensive command of the ancient Chinese language. One of them, entitled "Fu on the Yangtze River" (Jiang fu 江賦), used the image of the Yangtze to praise the restoration of the Jin dynasty, and established his reputation as a leading literary figure. His best known poems are a series entitled "Wandering as an Immortal" (youxian 遊仙), of which 14 survive. The bibliography monograph of the Records of the Sui dynasty list Guo's works in 17 volumes; by the Tang dynasty only 10 volumes remained, and by the end of the Song dynasty all of Guo's writings not included in the Wen Xuan had been lost. All that remains today are his writings from the Wen Xuan and reconstructions from quotations in other surviving works. Guo Pu is popularly credited in Wenzhou with laying out the former walled city according to feng shui. Local tradition links the walls to surrounding hills and river defences, giving rise to the nicknames “Dipper City” and “White Deer City”, and explains place names such as Guogong Hill and Lucheng, as well as later cultural references like the Song era “Nine Hills Book Society”. Some scholars accept that the topographic details may be plausible, but argue that the Guo Pu attribution appears only from the Southern Song and is likely a later legend; the fortified settlement on the south bank of the Ou River may predate this, possibly back to the Dong’ou Kingdom.