Wang Guowei

• Born — 2 December 1877 • Birthplace — Haining, Zhejiang, Qing China • Died — 2 June 1927 • Place of death — Kunming Lake, Beijing, Republic of China • Death Cause — Suicide by drowning • Occupation — Historian, poet Wang Guowei (2 December 18772 June 1927) or Wang Kuo-wei, courtesy name Jing'an (zh-Hant) or Boyu (zh-Hant), was a Chinese historian and poet. A versatile scholar, he made important contributions to the studies of ancient history, epigraphy, philology, vernacular literature and literary theory.

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, 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, where he was known as one of the "Four Great Tutors," along with the prominent Chinese scholars Liang Qichao, Chen Yinke, and Y. R. Chao. Utilitarianism and 'Life-ism' (the continuous expansion and preservation of life) were advocated by Liang Qichao and Yan Fu, but drew criticism from Wang who claimed that they limited philosophical thinking. In 1927, Wang drowned himself in Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace before the National Revolutionary Army entered Beijing during the Northern Expedition. Chen Yinque's epitaph read: "The suicide of Wang was because he worried about losing the independent spirit and free thought he long cherished in his academic pursuit." • Illustration — The monument of Wang Guowei at Tsinghua University