Guo Moruo - Blackbeard

Chinese poet, author, and historian. His real name was Guo Kaizhen. He went by many pen names, including Moruo, Mai Ke'ang, and Yi Kanren. He was born on November 16, 1892 to a landlord in Leshan County, Sichuan Province. He had a rebellious spirit from an early age, and was expelled twice during middle school. He experienced the Xinhai Revolution while attending middle school in Chengdu, and in 1914 came to Japan to study, graduating from the special preparatory course at the former First Higher School and the former Sixth Higher School before going on to study at Kyushu Imperial University's School of Medicine. He had been married in an old-fashioned way before coming to Japan, but while attending First Higher School he fell in love with Sato Tomi, and after entering Sixth Higher School he married her and had five children. Inspired by the May Fourth Movement in his home country in 1919, he began writing poetry by submitting it to Shanghai's Xue Lantern, and in 1921 he formed the Creative Society with Yu Dafu and Cheng Fang Wu, who were also studying abroad, and published his first collection of poems, Goddess, in the same year. His early works had a strong tendency to sing in a straightforward manner of rebellious spirit against reality, and were representative of the Creative Society's advocacy of romanticism and the liberation of individuality.

As the National Revolution progressed, he was influenced by Kawakami Hajime and gradually approached Marxism. He was one of the first few people to advocate the combination of literature and revolution, and led the left-wing shift of the Creative Society. He participated in the Northern Expedition as Secretary-General of the General Political Department of the National Revolutionary Army, but in 1927, after the April 12th Coup, he participated in the Nanchang Uprising. To avoid pursuit by the Kuomintang, he fled to Japan in 1928 and lived in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture. During this time, he immersed himself in the study of ancient Chinese history, and although it is criticized today as being somewhat mechanical, the significance of introducing the methodology of historical materialism to this field of scholarship is great. Immediately after the start of the Anti-Japanese War, he returned to China, leaving his wife and children behind, and was in charge of propaganda work as the Director of the Third Office of the General Political Department of the National Revolutionary Army under the Kuomintang-Communist cooperation. Around this time, he also married Yu Liqun, with whom he had three children. In the middle of the War of Resistance, the Kuomintang became increasingly reactionary, and he incorporated criticism of it in his historical dramas such as "Qu Yuan," which caused a great stir.

After the Second World War, he was at the forefront of the anti-civil war and democratic movement, and after liberation, he held important positions such as Vice Premier and President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, while also leaving behind a great deal of work in the fields of ancient history research and historical drama. Always at the forefront of his time, he was one of the first to support the Cultural Revolution when it began, but in 1973 he was attacked by the Cultural Revolution faction, who used the name of Criticizing the Lin and Criticizing the Confucius. Always at the forefront of politics, his highly variable behavior has been criticized in many ways, but this was not due to personal motives, but rather because he lived his life to the fullest in his own way in the ideological issues of the time, and he remains one of the leading intellectuals in modern China. He passed away on June 12, 1978. His works include "Collection of Writings by Moruo," 17 volumes (1957-63).

[Noboru Maruyama]

"Selected Works of Guo Moruo" Vols. 1, 2, 5-8, 13, 15 (1977-86, Yukonsha)" ▽ "History Pieces, Translated by Hiraoka Takeo (Iwanami Shinsho)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国の詩人、作家、歴史学者。本名郭開貞。筆名は沫若のほか麦克昂(ばくこくこう)、易坎人(えきかんじん)など多数。四川(しせん／スーチョワン)省楽山(らくざん／ローシャン)県の中地主の家に、1892年11月16日に生まれる。少年時代から反逆精神に富み、中学時代二度も退学処分を受けた。成都(せいと／チョントゥー)の中学在学中に辛亥(しんがい)革命を体験、1914年日本に留学、旧制第一高等学校の特設予科、旧制第六高等学校を経て九州帝国大学医学部に学んだ。来日前に古い型の結婚をしていたが、一高在学中に佐藤をとみと恋愛、六高入学後に結婚、5子をもうけた。19年、本国の五・四運動に触発されて、詩を上海(シャンハイ)の『学灯』に投稿したのを最初に創作を始め、21年、同じく留学中の郁達夫(いくたつふ／ユイターフー)、成仿吾(せいほうご／チョンファンウー)らと創造社を結成、同年最初の詩集『女神(じょしん)』を出版した。初期の作品は、現実に対する反逆精神を直線的に歌い上げる傾向が強く、ロマンチシズム、個性の解放を掲げた創造社を代表するものであった。

　国民革命の進展とともに、河上肇(はじめ)の影響も受けてしだいにマルクス主義に接近、文学と革命との結合を唱えた最初の数人の一人となるとともに、創造社の左翼化をリードした。北伐時には国民革命軍総政治部秘書長として参加したが、1927年、四・一二クーデター後南昌蜂起(なんしょうほうき)に参加、国民党の追及を避けて28年日本に亡命、千葉県市川に住んだ。ここでは中国古代史研究に沈潜、今日からみてやや機械的という批判もあるが、この分野の学問に史的唯物論の方法を導入した意味は大きい。抗日戦開始直後、妻子を残して帰国、国共合作下の国民革命軍総政治部第三庁庁長として宣伝工作を担当。またこれに前後して于立群(うりつぐん)と結婚、彼女との間に3子をもうけた。抗戦中期からは反動傾向を強めた国民党に対する批判を『屈原』ほかの歴史劇に込め、大きな反響をよんだ。

　第二次世界大戦後は反内戦、民主主義の運動の先頭に立ち、解放後は、副総理、科学院院長などの要職を歴任する一方、古代史研究、史劇などに多くの仕事を残した。つねに時代の先頭を切る彼は、文化大革命開始の際にもいち早くこれを支持したが、1973年には批林批孔(ひりんひこう)の名を借りた文革派の攻撃も受けた。つねに政治の第一線にあり、振幅も大きいその行動様式には批判も少なくないが、それは私心によるよりも、その時々の思想的課題を彼なりに全力で生きたことによるもので、近代中国の知識人の代表の一人であることを失わない。78年6月12日死去。『沫若文集』17巻（1957～63）がある。

［丸山　昇］

『『郭沫若選集』1、2、5～8、13、15巻（1977～86・雄渾社）』▽『平岡武夫訳『歴史小品』（岩波新書）』

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