Background
Gao was born in Zhangyan Village (張堰鎮), Jinshan, Jiangsu Province (current Jinshan District, Shanghai), to a wealthy family.
高燮
Gao was born in Zhangyan Village (張堰鎮), Jinshan, Jiangsu Province (current Jinshan District, Shanghai), to a wealthy family.
Gao studied law in Shanghai.
Gao had a beautiful and famous villa near Qinshan Hill (秦山) in Jinshan, named Xianxian Shanzhuang (閑閑山莊), and Huang Binhong, a famous painter, even painted a Shan-Shui (landscape painting) especially for lieutenant The villa was destroyed during the Second Sino-Japanese War when Japanese army invaded Shanghai. Gao also had his own family press, library and a book-collecting chamber named Chuiwan Chamber (吹萬樓) which stored more than 100,000 volumes.
In his late years, Gao donated all his book collections to the Fudan University Library in Shanghai.
His rare collections included more than one thousand versions of Shi Jing (詩經) from different periods in Chinese history, which was the largest at that time. Gao"s courtesy name (zì) is Chuiwan (吹萬), and normally recorded as Gao Chuiwan (高吹萬, Pinyin: Gāo Chuī Wàn, Wade–Giles: Kao Ch'ui-Wan / Kao Chui-Wan ).
He also used many art-names (hào) and pennames in his work including Hanyin (寒隱), Laorang (老攘), Huangtian (黃天), Baoweng (葩翁), Cishi (慈石), Shiruo (時若). Gao was a leading figure of the South Society which was the largest literature and poetry organization during the late Qing Dynasty and the early period of the Republic of China (Republic of China).
Many of Gao"s family members were involved in the founding and development of the society.
Gao"s relative Gao Xu was one of the three co-founders of the society. Gao"s brother"s son Ping-Tse Kao was also a physicist, and the Kao Crater on the moon is named after him. In 1990s and 2000s, Gao"s calligraphies and paintings has been shown in various antique auctions in Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, and Hong Kong and gained popularity.