Wang Xu better known by his pseudonym Guiguzi , is an ancient Chinese

History of China

Chinese civilization originated in various regional centers along both the Yellow River and the Yangtze River valleys in the Neolithic era, but the Yellow River is said to be the Cradle of Chinese Civilization. With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the world's oldest...

 philosopher

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 from the Warring States Period

Warring States Period

The Warring States Period , also known as the Era of Warring States, or the Warring Kingdoms period, covers the Iron Age period from about 475 BC to the reunification of China under the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC...

 of Chinese history. He was the founder of the School of Diplomacy

School of Diplomacy

The School of Diplomacy , or "School of Vertical and Horizontal" Alliances was a political and diplomatic clique during the Warring States Period of Chinese history...

 of the Hundred Schools of Thought

Hundred Schools of Thought

The Hundred Schools of Thought were philosophers and schools that flourished from 770 to 221 BC during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period , an era of great cultural and intellectual expansion in China...

 during that period. According to popular belief, Guiguzi was a master of politics

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

, diplomacy

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...

, military strategy

Military strategy

Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals. Derived from the Greek strategos, strategy when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow sense as the "art of the general", 'the art of arrangement' of troops...

 and fortune-telling

Fortune-telling

Fortune-telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune-telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination...

.

Guiguzi was born in Gui Valley (归谷) in present-day Dengfeng County, Henan

Henan

Henan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...

 province. As the pronunciation of the Chinese character of "归" (meaning: return) is quite similar to "鬼" (meaning: ghost; demon), Guiguzi's birthplace was hence popularly referred to as "Guigu" (鬼谷; Ghost Valley or Demon Valley).

The earliest records of Guiguzi were found in historian Sima Qian

Sima Qian

Sima Qian was a Prefect of the Grand Scribes of the Han Dynasty. He is regarded as the father of Chinese historiography for his highly praised work, Records of the Grand Historian , a "Jizhuanti"-style general history of China, covering more than two thousand years from the Yellow Emperor to...

's Records of the Grand Historian

Records of the Grand Historian

The Records of the Grand Historian, also known in English by the Chinese name Shiji , written from 109 BC to 91 BC, was the Magnum opus of Sima Qian, in which he recounted Chinese history from the time of the Yellow Emperor until his own time...

, in which it was stated that Guiguzi was the teacher of famous diplomats, statesmen and military strategists, including Su Qin

Su Qin

Su Qin , was an influential political strategist during the Warring States Period of Chinese history . He was born in Chengxuan Village, Luoyang in present day Henan Province. According to legend Su Qin was a disciple of Gui Guzi, the founder of the School of Diplomacy...

, Zhang Yi

Zhang Yi (strategist)

Zhang Yi was born in the Wei state during the Warring States Period of Chinese history. He was an important strategist in helping Qin to dissolve the unity of the other states, and hence pave the way for Qin to unify China...

, Sun Bin

Sun Bin

Sun Bin was a military strategist who lived during the Warring States Period of Chinese history. An alleged descendant of Sun Tzu, Sun Bin was tutored in military strategy by the hermit Guiguzi...

 and Pang Juan

Pang Juan

Pang Juan was an ancient Chinese military general of the Wei state during the Warring States Period.-Early life:Pang Juan was a fellow student of Sun Bin and both of them studied military strategy together under the tutelage of the hermit Guiguzi. They developed a close friendship and became sworn...

. Guiguzi was also affiliated with Taoism

Taoism

Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...

 and was believed to be an immortal

Immortality

Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...

 who lived for hundreds of years in the human realm. Guiguzi is also featured as a non-playable character in the action RPG

Action role-playing game

Action role-playing games form a loosely defined sub-genre of role-playing video games that incorporate elements of action or action-adventure games, emphasizing real-time action where the player has direct control over characters, instead of turn-based or menu-based combat...

 Prince of Qin.