Gu Yanwu

Gu Yanwu (Chinese: 顧炎武; pinyin: Gù Yánwǔ; Wade–Giles: Ku4 Yen2-wu3, 1613 – 1682) was a Chinese historian, philologist, and poet. After failing to advance through the civil service examination system and surviving the upheaval of the Qing conquest of the Ming dynasty, he became an itinerant scholar, traveling across much of China while collecting notes for his work.