郭璞

Publicly available information about Guo Pu's life and official career is limited: because of the great antiquity of the sources, his exact place of origin, birth and death dates, and educational background remain disputed and cannot be described in detail with confidence. What can be established are his transmitted works. The library holds seven of his titles, including the Er Ya Zhu Shu, the Er Ya Zhu (Old Commentaries on the Thirteen Classics), the Shan Hai Jing, the Mu Tianzi Zhuan, the Zang Shu, and the Xuan Zhong Ji. Guo Pu excelled in the study of glosses, names and things, and geography and natural history. His commentaries and sub-commentaries cite widely and define meanings with precision; they both clarify the classics and preserve a great many ancient words and senses, making them important aids for reading the texts of the pre-Qin and Han periods. His editorial work on the Shan Hai Jing and the Mu Tianzi Zhuan reflects a vision that connects myth, geography, and history, while the Zang Shu is a key text in the traditional literature of geomancy. Overall, his writings combine textual scholarship with broad antiquarian inquiry and have had a lasting influence on later classical studies, geography, and the culture of technical arts.