Guo Moruo (November 16, 1892 – June 12, 1978),[1] courtesy name Dingtang, was a Chinese author, poet, historian, archaeologist, and government official.

Guo Moruo, originally named Guo Kaizhen, was born on November 10 or 16, in the small town of Shawan, located on the Dadu River some 40 km (25 mi) southwest from what was then called the city of Jiading (Lu) (Chia-ting (Lu), 嘉定(路)), and now is the central urban area of the prefecture level city of Leshan in Sichuan Province.

[2] A few years before Guo was born, his parents retained a private tutor, Shen Huanzhang, to provide education for their children, in the hope of them later passing civil service examinations.

Guo Kaiwen soon became instrumental in exposing his brother and sisters still in Shawan to modern books and magazines that allowed them to learn about the wide world outside.

[2] Guo Kaiwen continued to be a role model for his younger brothers when in February 1905 he left for Japan, to study law and administration at Tokyo Imperial University on a provincial government scholarship.

[2] After passing competitive examinations, in early 1906 Guo Moruo started attending the new upper-level primary school (高等小學; gāoděng xiǎoxué) in Jiading.

His studies at this time focused on foreign language and literature, namely the works of: Spinoza, Goethe, Walt Whitman, and the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

His attempt to arrange for Sato Tomiko and their children to join him in China were frustrated by the Japanese authorities,[3] and in 1939 he remarried to Yu Liqun [zh], a Shanghai actress.

In early February 1942, Guō Mòruò created a five-act historical drama 虎符, Hǔfú ("Tiger Talisman") in a single nine-day period.

Along with holding important government offices in the People's Republic of China, Guo was a prolific writer, not just of poetry but also fiction, plays, autobiographies, translations, and historical and philosophical treatises.

For the first 15 years of the PRC, Guo, with his extensive knowledge of Chinese history and culture, was the ultimate arbiter of philosophical matters relating to art, education, and literature, although all of his most vital and important work had been written before 1949.

He then turned to writing poetry praising Mao's wife Jiang Qing and the Cultural Revolution and also denounced former friends and colleagues as counterrevolutionaries.

[7][8] Because of his sycophantic loyalty to Mao, he survived the Cultural Revolution and received commendation by the chairman at the 9th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in April 1969.

He enjoyed all the privileges of the highest-ranking party elites, including residence in a luxurious manor house once owned by a Qing official, a staff of assigned servants, a state limousine, and other perks.

[citation needed] The White-Boned Demon was a character in the Ming-era novel Journey to the West, an evil shapeshifting being, and was a popular derogatory nickname for Jiang Qing.

[citation needed] In March of the same year, (1978), Guo defied illness to attend the First National Science Conference, the first of its kind to be held since the end of the Cultural Revolution.

A fuller bibliography may be found in: A Selective Guide to Chinese Literature, 1900-1949, edited by Milena Doleželová-Velingerová et al.[30] Guo wrote nine autobiographical works:[41]