The Lost Confucian Philosopher: Gu I longming and the Chinese Religion of Good Citizenship

Abstract

Gu Hongming (Ku Hung-ming 辜 鸿 铭) (1857- 1928) was a Chinese scholar-official in the late Qing dynasty who in his early years received a comprehensive European education. He was widely recognized as one of China's most distinguished Confucian philosophers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For a long period after his death, however, Gu was largely forgotten both in China and abroad except for the intensity of his conservative leanings. The newer generations of Confucians (xin rujia 新 儒 家 never mentioned Gu in their scholarly works. While recently there has been a rising interest in Gu and his works, most public and scholarly attention has centered on certain "eccentric" aspects of his penchants and personality. There have been few discussions about the philosophical value and relevance of his ideas. Thus, Gu remains a lost Confucian philosopher.