Gong Zizhen

Who is Gong Zizhen?

Gong Zizhen 龔自珍 was a Chinese poet, calligrapher and intellectual active in the 19th century whose works both foreshadowed and influenced the modernization movements of the late Qing dynasty.

He was born August 22, 1792, in the town of Renhe near Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, into an eminent family of scholars and officials. He moved to Beijing, the capital of the Qing Dynasty, with his parents when he was only six years old, about 1100 kilometers to the northwest of his hometown. As a child, he was required to read all the classics in literature, poetry and philosophy. Gong was a grandson of the famous philologist Duan Yucai, who put a lot of hope in Gong and began educating him in the Han period old text classics. Later on Gong studied the new text tradition under Liu Fenglu, as well as Tiantai Buddhism under Jiang Tiejun. But, when he grew up, Gong became more interested in social and government affairs. In 1821 when he was 29, Gong passed the imperial civil examinations at the provincial level and obtained the title of Juren, or Recommended Man. He succeeded to a series of metropolitan posts in the Qing administration. His lifelong desire to serve the nation was frustrated by repeated failure to gain the Jinshi degree, or Presented Scholar. When he finally did pass that in 1829, his low ranking on the list disqualified him from the Hanlin Academy. The highest office he ever held was a chief official on the Board of Rites and Ceremonies in 1837.