Guo Kaiwen continued to be a role model for his younger brothers when in February 1905 he left for Japan, to study law and administration at Tokyo Imperial University on a provincial government’ scholarship.

After passing competitive examinations, in early 1906 Guo Moruo started attending the new upper-level primary school (高等小學; gāoděng xiǎoxué) in Jiading. It was a boarding school located in a former Buddhist temple and the boy lived on premises. He went on to a middle school in 1907, acquiring by this time the reputation of an academically gifted student but a troublemaker. His peers respected him and often elected him a delegate to represent their interests in front of the school administration. Often spearheading student-faculty conflicts, he was expelled and reinstated a few times, and finally expelled permanently in October 1909.

In October 1911, Guo was surprised by his mother announcing that a marriage was arranged for him. He went along with his family’s wishes, marrying his appointed bride, Zhang Jinghua, sight-unseen in Shawan in March 1912. Immediately, he regretted this marriage, and five days after the marriage, he left his ancestral home and returned to Chengdu, leaving his wife behind. He never formally divorced her, but apparently never lived with her either.

Following his elder brothers, Guo left China in December 1913, reaching Japan in early January 1914. After a year of preparatory study in Tokyo, he entered Sixth Higher School in Okayama. When visiting a friend of his hospitalized in Saint Luke’s Hospital in Tokyo, in the summer of 1916, Guo fell in love with Sato Tomiko, a Japanese woman from a Christian family, who worked at the hospital as a student nurse. Sato would become his common-law wife. They were to stay together for 20 years, until the outbreak of the war, and to have five children together.

After graduation from the Okayama school, Guo entered in 1918 the Medical School of Kyushu Imperial University in Fukuoka. He was more interested in literature than medicine, however. His studies at this time focused on foreign language and literature, namely the works of: Spinoza, Goethe, Walt Whitman, and the Bengali poet Tagore. Along with numerous translations, he published his first anthology of poems, entitled The Goddesses (女神; nǚshén) (1921). He co-founded the Ch’uang-tsao she (“Creation Society”) in Shanghai, which promoted modern and vernacular literature.

Guo joined the Communist Party of China in 1927. He was involved in the Communist Nanchang Uprising and fled to Japan after its failure. He stayed there for 10 years studying Chinese ancient history. During that time he published his work on inscriptions on oracle bones and bronze vessels, Corpus of Inscriptions on Bronzes from the Two Zhou Dynasties (两周金文辭大系考釋). In this work, he attempted to demonstrate, according to the Communist doctrine, the “slave society” nature of ancient China. His theory on the “slave society of China” remains highly controversial, although it was praised by Mao Zedong and the party.

1937 he organized a propaganda troop for the Frontline. Reported directly to Chou En-lai for wartime literature work as a “non-party” person.

November 1937 just before Guo went to join the red army, he was able to enjoy a poem recital party.with old friends. They were friends about a dozen years ago in Beijing and Tokyo and collaborated closely on many literary journals. Guo Moruo 郭沫若 just came back from his 10-year exile in Japan. These friends just arranged his Shanghai accommodations. Guo, Shen Yinmo, with his constant companion Zhubaoquan 保權, Zhang Fengju 张凤举 with his new bride and Shen Wangsi 沈迈士 enjoyed a fish and wine fest to produce this joint handscroll. The celebration was in the Jingjiang Hotel. Not long after this, Guo departed to join the red army at the front lines against the Japanese near Shanghai.

1938 Went to frontline Wuhan as Third Political Section Head. October Wuhan fell to Japanese. Went to Chungking 重庆 in the interior of China..

In the summer of 1937, shortly after the Marco Polo Bridge incident, Guo returned to China to join the anti-Japanese resistance. His attempt to arrange for Sato Tomiko and their children to join him in China were frustrated by the Japanese authorities, and in 1939 he remarried to Yu Liqun [zh], a Shanghai actress. After the war, Sato went to reunite with him but was disappointed to know that he had already formed a new family and returned to Japan. (According to some Chinese text articles, his behavior towards her was “shameless” 无耻. For example, he refused to meet her when she went to see him in Hong Kong, 1948.)

1939 “Shi Gu Text Research”《石鼓文研究》published. April 1940 archeology dig of Han tomb in Chungking which resulted in this study of the first known stone carved calligraphy. This dig was controversial since some archeologists were concerned about preservation. But Guo did his research and wrote his paper anyway.

1941 Edited. “50 Years of Verse” 《五十年简谱》. Rewrote “Cherry Blossom” 《棠棣之花》 (Excerpt from “Cherry Blossom”)。1942 wrote historical dramas “Qu Yuan”《屈原》、”Hu Fu”《虎符》, “Gao Jian Li”《高渐离》, “Peacock Courage”《孔雀胆》. Translated Goethe “Hermann unt Dorothea”《赫曼与窦绿苔》. Established the publisher 群益出版社 and edited “Chong Yuan” (Central China) 《中原》. 1943 wrote a historical drama “Nan Guan Cao” 《南冠草》. Not only do the operas reflect the views discussed above. Even the archeological calligraphy study and the Goethe translation adhere to them. Despite the propaganda there is exceptional literary value accorded by the Chinese literary circles. The following book “Thirty Snapshots from Guo Morue” 郭沫若的三十個剪影 by 邢小群 has lively discussions about the events at publication of the operas and other works. It includes reactions by Zhou En-lai and the opposing Kuomintong officials. 1944 published 《甲申三百年祭》, a collection of writings which became designated study material by communist party. 1945 drafted “Call for Democratic Politics”. Published “Bronze Age”《青铜时代》 and《十批判书》. Moved to Shanghai ln the summer. Joined the intermittent peace talk between Kuomintong and Communist parties. Published “Historical Figures” 《历史人物》.

1947 Translated Goethe “Faust”. Edited “Time of Youth” 《少年时代》、”Spring and Autumn of Revolution”《革命春秋》, 《天地玄黄》. Went to Hong Kong. 1948 wrote “War Memoirs” which he renamed “Hong Bo Qu” (for the song)《洪波曲》. Then went to the red army liberated. areas in the Northeast (Civil war). Even though he was not a military man, he liked to be near the action.

Along with holding important government offices in the People’s Republic of China, Guo was a prolific writer, not just of poetry but also fiction, plays, autobiographies, translations, and historical and philosophical treatises. He was the first President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and remained so from its founding in 1949 until his death in 1978. He was also the first president of University of Science & Technology of China (USTC), a new type of university established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) after the founding of the People’s Republic of China and aimed at fostering high-level personnel in the fields of science and technology.

With the onset of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, Guo became an early target of persecution. To save face, he wrote a public self-criticism and declared that all his previous works were in error and should be burned. He then turned to writing poetry praising Mao’s wife Jiang Qing and the Cultural Revolution and also denounced former friends and colleagues as counterrevolutionaries. However, this was not enough to protect his family. Two of his sons, Guo Minying and Guo Shiying, “committed suicide” in 1967 and 1968 following “criticism” or persecution by Red Guards.

Because of his sycophantic loyalty to Mao, he survived the Cultural Revolution and received commendation by the chairman at the 9th Party Congress in April 1969. By the early 1970s, he had regained most of his influence. He enjoyed all the privileges of the highest-ranking party elites, including residence in a luxurious manor house once owned by a Qing official, a staff of assigned servants, a state limousine, and other perks. Guo also maintained a large collection of antique furniture and curios in his home.

In 1978, following Mao’s death and the fall of the Gang of Four, the 85 year old Guo, as he lay dying in a Beijing hospital, penned a poem denouncing the Gang.