Kong Anguo (; ca. 156 – ca. 74 BC),

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 Theo ...

Ziguo (), 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 ...

scholar and government official of the

Western Han dynasty 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 ...

of ancient China. A descendant of

Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...

, he wrote the ''Shangshu Kongshi Zhuan'', a compilation and commentary of the "Old Text" '' Shangshu''. His work was lost, but a fourth-century forgery was officially recognized as a Confucian classic for over a millennium.

Background

Kong Anguo was a native of

Qufu Qufu ( ; ) is a city in southwestern Shandong province, East China. It is located about south of the provincial capital Jinan and northeast of the prefectural seat at Jining. Qufu has an area of 815 square kilometers, and a total population of ...

in Lu, one of the many semi-autonomous kingdoms of the Western Han dynasty. He was the second son of Kong Zhong () and an eleventh-generation descendant of

. He studied 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 ...

'' and '' Shangshu'' (''Book of Documents'') from the famous Confucian scholars

Shen Pei Shen Pei (died 204), courtesy name Zhengnan, was a Chinese military general and politician serving under the warlord Yuan Shao during the late Eastern Han dynasty. Xun Yu, an official serving under Yuan Shao's rival Cao Cao, once said that Shen ...

and Fu Sheng. Kong also served in the court of

Emperor Wu of Han Emperor Wu of Han (156 – 29 March 87BC), formally enshrined as Emperor Wu the Filial (), born Liu Che (劉徹) and courtesy name Tong (通), was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty of ancient China, ruling from 141 to 87 BC. His reign last ...

as the Grand Master of Remonstrance ().

Old Text ''Shangshu''

According to tradition, the local ruler Prince Gong of Lu demolished a building of the Kong family complex in the process of enlarging his palace, and some ancient texts were discovered hidden in a wall, including ''Shangshu''. They had apparently been hidden there in order to escape the

book burning Book burning is the deliberate destruction by fire of books or other written materials, usually carried out in a public context. The burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or politi ...

of Emperor

Qin Shi Huang Qin Shi Huang (, ; 259–210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of a unified China. Rather than maintain the title of " king" ( ''wáng'') borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Empero ...

. This version of ''Shangshu'' contained 16 more chapters than the one transmitted by Fu Sheng. As the hidden texts were written in the ancient

seal script Seal script, also sigillary script () is an ancient style of writing Chinese characters that was common throughout the latter half of the 1st millennium BC. It evolved organically out of the Zhou dynasty bronze script. The Qin variant of se ...

, this newly discovered version is called "Ancient Script" or " Old Text" ''Shangshu'', whereas Fu Sheng's version is called the "Modern Script" or "New Text". Kong Anguo compiled and wrote a commentary to the Old Text called ''Shangshu Kongshi Zhuan'' (尚書孔氏傳, literally ''Kong's Commentary of Shangshu''), and the famous historian

Sima Qian Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years be ...

studied the text from him. The documents had a foreword added by Kong. However, the ''Shangshu Kongshi Zhuan'' was later lost during the

Eastern Han dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...

(25-220 AD). In the early fourth century, during the

Eastern Jin dynasty Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...

, a purported copy of Kong's work suddenly reemerged. Scholar

Mei Ze Mei Ze (; fl. 4th century), also known as Mei Yi (梅頤), was a Confucian scholar and government official of the Eastern Jin Dynasty of ancient China. A native of Runan (汝南, present-day Wuchang District, Hubei province), Mei Ze served as go ...

submitted a copy of the Old Text ''Shangshu'' to

Emperor Yuan of Jin Emperor Yuan of Jin (; 276 – 3 January 323), personal name Sima Rui (司馬睿), courtesy name Jingwen (景文), was an emperor of the Jin dynasty and the first emperor of the Eastern Jin. His reign saw the steady gradual loss of Jin territor ...

, along with a preface supposedly written by Kong Anguo. The Jin court accepted Mei's version as authentic. In 653, during the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...

, Mei Ze's Old Text further became the official version of the Confucian classic. Although many scholars had questioned the authenticity of Mei's version over the centuries, it maintained its official status for more than 1000 years until the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. Mei Ze's version is now recognized as a forgery. The "ancient character" edition falsely attributed to Kong is fake.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kong, Anguo 150s BC births 70s BC deaths Chinese Confucianists Han dynasty writers Han dynasty politicians from Shandong Politicians from Jining Writers from Jining Descendants of Confucius Han dynasty classicists