Abstract: Gu Sui was born in a prestige family at Qinghe County in Hebei Province. The Gu family cultural characteristics include three aspects——ploughing and reading, and being refined and vulgar; families living together, and being good at introspection; being happy in doing good, and caring for the sufferings of the people. These characteristics has had a influence on Gu Sui’s novel creation. The thematic orientation of Gu Sui’s 12 novels can be divided into four aspects—the worship of female excellent quality; the special attention to family life; the description of rural life; the object lesson of Confucian classics. It’s very obvious that the thematic orientation was influenced by family culture.

Key words: Gu Sui, family culture, novel, thematic orientation