About the author

Chen Gui is an author of ancient Chinese military writings whose birthplace, dates of birth and death, and other biographical details are limited in publicly available sources and difficult to verify. Four works survive under his name, including Essentials of City Defense, Records of City Defense, Records of City Defense: Song Dynasty, Chen Gui, and a Postscript to Remarks on the Court and the Countryside in the Jingkang Era. Their contents center on urban defense and on observations of the political and military situation around the Jingkang period, reflecting an approach that attends to practical military affairs and values the concrete business of defending cities. These books consist mainly of itemized essentials and summaries of successes and failures in defense; their language is plain and substantive rather than empty rhetoric, giving them a distinctly practical character within the literature of ancient military science. Because historical sources are fragmentary, details of his life, teachers, and associates cannot be set out at length. Judging from the surviving titles, however, Chen Gui's works combine military and documentary value, have long drawn the attention of students of Song dynasty city defense and related historical events, and are commonly grouped under categories such as military affairs, culture, and Eastern philosophy.

Written (4)

Publishers

Jinzhang Book Company (Jinzhang Shuju)Bashu Publishing House