Jia Kui (30–101 CE),
courtesy name
A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theob ...
Jingbo, was a
Confucian
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...
philosopher who lived in the early
Eastern Han
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
period. He was a descendant of the
Western Han
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a war ...
politician and writer
Jia Yi
Jia Yi (; c. 200169 BCE) was a Chinese essayist, poet and politician of the Western Han dynasty, best known as one of the earliest known writers of ''fu'' rhapsody and for his essay "Disquisition Finding Fault with Qin" (''Guò Qín Lùn'' ), w ...
.
[ He was born in Pingling (平陵), ]Youfufeng
Fufeng ( zh, 扶風), also known as You Fufeng ( zh, 右扶風), was a historical region located in modern western Shaanxi.
In early Han dynasty, the administrator of the capital Chang'an and its vicinities was known as ''You Neishi'' (右內史) ...
Commandery
In the Middle Ages, a commandery (rarely commandry) was the smallest administrative division of the European landed properties of a military order. It was also the name of the house where the knights of the commandery lived.Anthony Luttrell and G ...
(右扶風郡), which is located northeast of present-day Xingping, Shaanxi
Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), N ...
.Luoyang
Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyang ...
.
Zuo Zhuan expert
Like his father, Jia Hui, he was an expert in the '' Zuo Zhuan'' and the '' Guoyu'', presenting his commentary on these to Emperor Ming in around 67 CE, who added them to the imperial collection.[ He was a colleague of Ban Gu at the imperial library, and like him, wrote a commentary on ]Qu Yuan
Qu Yuan ( – 278 BCE) was a Chinese poet and politician in the State of Chu during the Warring States period. He is known for his patriotism and contributions to classical poetry and verses, especially through the poems of the '' ...
's poem ''Li Sao
"''Li Sao''" (; translation: "Encountering Sorrow") is an ancient Chinese poem from the anthology '' Chuci'' traditionally attributed to Qu Yuan. ''Li Sao'' dates from the late 3rd century BCE, during the Chinese Warring States period.
Backgro ...
''.
Writings
Upon Emperor Zhang's ascension to the throne, he ordered Jia to write of the '' Zuo Zhuans superiority to both the ''Guliang Zhuan
The () is considered one of the classic books of ancient Chinese history. It is traditionally attributed to a writer with the surname of Guliang in the disciple tradition of Zixia, but versions of his name vary and there is no definitive way t ...
'' and the ''Gongyang Zhuan
The ''Gongyang Zhuan'' (), also known as the ''Gongyang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals'' or the ''Commentary of Gongyang'', is a commentary on the ''Spring and Autumn Annals'', and is thus one of the Chinese classics. Along with the '' ...
''. Jia produced the work, arguing that only ''Zuo Zhuan'' agreed with the supposedly-prophetic ''chen'', proclaiming that the House of Liu (the Han dynastic family) was destined to rule as successors of the legendary Emperor Yao
Emperor Yao (; traditionally c. 2356 – 2255 BCE) was a legendary Chinese ruler, according to various sources, one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.
Ancestry and early life
Yao's ancestral name is Yi Qi () or Qi (), clan name i ...
.[
Around 82 CE, he completed three more works in which he compared the "New Text" and "Old Text" versions (i.e. those saved from the Qin book burnings by Fu Sheng and those discovered in a wall of Confucius' estate and transcribed by ]Kong Anguo
Kong Anguo (; ca. 156 – ca. 74 BC), courtesy name Ziguo (), was a Confucian scholar and government official of the Western Han dynasty of ancient China. A descendant of Confucius, he wrote the ''Shangshu Kongshi Zhuan'', a compilation and comme ...
) of the '' Book of Documents'', '' Rites of Zhou'' and the ''Classic of Poetry
The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, c ...
''.[
]
Writings and poetry
According to Jia's biography in the '' Book of the Later Han'', he wrote over a million words commentary on the Confucian classics
Chinese classic texts or canonical texts () or simply dianji (典籍) refers to the Chinese texts which originated before the imperial unification by the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, particularly the "Four Books and Five Classics" of the Neo-Confucian ...
, as well as poetry.[
Jia was commissioned in 85 CE to produce a report on the fine-tuning of the amended and re-introduced ''Sifen'' calendar.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jia, Kui
101 deaths
30 births
Han dynasty philosophers
1st-century Chinese philosophers
Chinese Confucianists
1st-century Chinese people