Mr. Gu Yisheng was born in1924+February, and his ancestral home is Haining, Zhejiang. It goes without saying that Gu Kuang, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, is a distant ancestor. My father studied physics, finance, old knowledge and new knowledge. At home, he practiced enlightenment education, and studied western learning, arts and sciences, which had a positive impact on Mr. Gu's later study and formed a reasonable knowledge structure and broad academic vision. He was enlightened at the age of four, and basically took a road of combining school education with family training. Judging from Mr. Gu's memories of his early study life in his later years, two points are particularly worth mentioning: First, his father encouraged him to satirize ancient poems and taught him: "Always cultivate self-cultivation, treat people with things, be loyal-oriented, follow the poet's wishes, and swim well." [1] After Mr. Gu's death, he took teaching and studying classical literature as his lifelong career, which was hidden. Not only that, it also inspired him to realize the special functions and ways of classical literature beneficial to people's body and mind. Secondly, I have been encouraged to study with a sense of urgency since I was a child. When he was a teenager, the society was in turmoil. "My parents educated me with a sense of urgency. They firmly believe that the excellent traditional culture of the motherland is the basis for cultivating national self-esteem, noble personality and interest. Therefore, they have strengthened the teaching of children in this respect since childhood to make up for the lack of school curriculum, consciously teach classical poetry, help children read ancient classics, and always tell each other with the words and deeds of people with lofty ideals in ancient and modern times. " [2] Later, when Mr. Gu gave lectures and wrote articles on his own, he was often accompanied by a feeling of worrying about the country and the people, which was also clearly reflected in his works on the history of literary criticism, which was inseparable from the court admonitions he received since childhood. He majored in law and worked in a bank. If he hadn't applied for Professor Zhu Dongrun's postgraduate degree at 1956, classical literature, like calligraphy and painting, might just be one of his hobbies. It was that exam that fundamentally changed his career direction. After graduation, he stayed in school to teach, and worked in the Teaching and Research Section of Classical Literature of Chinese Department of China Institute of Language and Literature and the Teaching and Research Section of China Literature Criticism History, and served as the director of the Teaching and Research Section of Criticism History for a long time. Mr. Gu's research covers many fields of China's ancient literature and history, ranging from pre-Qin to modern times, in which the literature of Tang and Song Dynasties and the history of ancient literary criticism are his two most focused and concentrated fields. Because of his outstanding achievements in teaching the history of ancient literature and literary criticism, he won the first prize of teaching achievement from the Ministry of Education and Shanghai, and the General History of China Literary Criticism edited by him and Professor Wang Yunxi also won many awards from the state and Shanghai. I wonder what Mr. Gu Yisheng thinks about his career change of giving up law and finance and choosing classical literature? What I want to say is that when his works are continuously published and circulated, his research results can have a positive impact on promoting academic development, nourishing and enlightening students' hearts. Therefore, as a researcher and professor, he should be comforted.
On August 20th, 20 13, at 2: 57 pm (at 2: 57 am Beijing time on August 20th19), Mr. Gu Yisheng died at the suburban hospital in Washington, USA, at the age of 89.