Kǒngzǐ biānnián 孔子編年
Annalistic Chronicle of Confucius by 胡仔 (撰), at the command of 胡舜陟 (命撰)
About the work
A five-juàn annalistic biography of Kǒngzǐ 孔子, arranging by year (rather than under the more usual niánpǔ 年譜 heading, “in deference to the Sage”) all the recorded sayings and acts of Confucius drawn from the Lúnyǔ 論語, the three Chūnqiū commentaries, the Lǐjì 禮記, the Kǒngzǐ jiāyǔ 孔子家語, and the Kǒngzǐ shìjiā 孔子世家 of the Shǐjì 史記. The compilation runs from the twenty-second year of Duke Xiāng of Lǔ (551 BCE) — the year Confucius is held to have been born — down to the sixteenth year of Duke Āi (479 BCE), the year of his death. Hú Zǐ 胡仔, better known to posterity as the Tiáoxī yúyǐn 苕溪漁隱 and compiler of the Tiáoxī yúyǐn cónghuà 苕溪漁隱叢話, executed the work at the order of his father Hú Shùnzhì 胡舜陟 (1083–1143), whose preface is dated Shàoxīng 8 (1138).
Tiyao
Kǒngzǐ biānnián, in five juàn. The old text bears the attribution “compiled by Hú Shùnzhì of the Sòng,” but examination of the front of the book reveals a preface by Shùnzhì himself, dated Shàoxīng 8 (1138), written upon his return from Jìngjiāng 靜江 after dismissal from office, in which he states that he had ordered his son Zǐ 仔 to compile it — so it is not Shùnzhì’s own work. Shùnzhì, courtesy name Rǔmíng 汝明, was a man of Jìxī 績溪. He took the jìnshì in Dàguān 3 (1109), held office as attendant censor in the Jìngkāng period, and at the beginning of the southern court served as prefect of Lúzhōu 廬州 with merit in repelling bandits. He successively held several commanderies and ended as Pacification Commissioner of Guǎngxī 廣西經略使. When he sought to build a shrine for the father of Qín Huì 秦檜, Gāo Dēng 髙登 refused; Shùnzhì impeached Dēng to ingratiate himself with Huì; later, having unwittingly offended Huì on another matter, he too was arraigned and died in prison. His son Zǐ, courtesy name Yuánrèn 元任, later took refuge in Wúxīng 呉興; he edited the Shīhuà 詩話 that circulated in the world, namely the so-called Tiáoxī yúyǐn. This book gathers the words and deeds of Confucius, drawing on the Lúnyǔ, the Chūnqiū with its three commentaries, the Lǐjì, the Jiāyǔ, and the Shìjiā of the Shǐjì, arranging them year by year — its format is that of a niánpǔ, but it is called biānnián rather than niánpǔ in honour of the Sage. From the Zhōu and Qín periods onward, the apocryphal chènwěi 讖緯 mixed in all manner of bizarre and supernatural tales, every one of them ascribed to Confucius — utterly false and not to be trusted. Zǐ alone relied upon the classics and commentaries, investigated the actual events, and made the Lúnyǔ his lodestar, supplementing it from other books; his selections are quite scrupulous. Yet because the various books that record the Sage’s sayings cannot in every case fix the year and month, Zǐ, having committed himself to annalistic form, sometimes does violence to the sources. Thus when Zuǒzhuàn under Xiānggōng 21 records the men of Zhèng disputing in the village school and Confucius hearing of it, Dù Yù’s 杜預 commentary observes that Confucius was then ten years old and only later heard the saying — meaning the remark could not be from that year. Zǐ nonetheless places the matter under the year when Confucius was ten, which is quite errant. Again, the Lǐjì’s Rúxíng chapter has Confucius answering Duke Āi of Lǔ, and Zǐ assigns it to the year Confucius was sixty-eight; the Āigōng wèn chapter on the great rituals he assigns to age seventy-two — on what authority is unclear. Such instances err on the side of strain. Even so, since the Sòng, those who have collected the Sage’s traces are many, and grow more confused by the day; Zǐ’s redaction is closest to antiquity, and we therefore place it at the head of the zhuànjì 傳記 division to mark its source. Reverently presented in the tenth month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781). Chief Editors: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shìyì 孫士毅. Chief Collator: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.
Abstract
The Kǒngzǐ biānnián is the earliest surviving sustained Sòng-dynasty year-by-year biography of Confucius, and the Sìkù editors deliberately placed it at the head of the zhuànjì 傳記 division of the History section to emphasize its priority. The catalog meta records the author Hú Zǐ’s dates as 1147–1167 — these are not lifedates but rather the active period associated with the publication of his better-known Tiáoxī yúyǐn cónghuà (前集 c. 1148, 後集 c. 1167); his actual lifedates are conventionally given as c. 1110 – c. 1170. The composition date of the Kǒngzǐ biānnián itself is fixed by Hú Shùnzhì’s Shàoxīng 8 (1138) preface, written shortly after Shùnzhì had been dismissed from his post as Pacification Commissioner of Guǎngxī and had returned home; the labour of compilation was given to his son Zǐ. Hú Shùnzhì died in prison in 1143, having fallen out with the chancellor Qín Huì 秦檜 (CBDB id 43373; 1083–1143). The Sìkù editors fault Hú Zǐ for occasional anachronistic entries (notably his placing the Zhèngzhōu xiāng xiào episode and the Lǐjì’s Rúxíng and Āigōng wèn dialogues at uncertain ages of Confucius), but praise his strict reliance on the Lúnyǔ and the canonical commentaries against the apocryphal Kǒngzǐ jiāyǔ embellishments and the chènwěi fabrications. Unlike many later Kǒngzǐ niánpǔ compilations, the work is sober and conservative, and remained a reference text for early Qīng Kǒngzǐ chronologers.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language translation located. The work is normally consulted alongside the various Sòng and later Kǒngzǐ niánpǔ compilations and is discussed in standard handbooks of Sòng historiography; see Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49 (biographies and niánpǔ). The standard catalog notice is in Sì-kù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào 史部·傳記類一·聖賢之屬.
Other points of interest
The text is the earliest entry under the shèngxián zhī shǔ 聖賢之屬 sub-class of zhuànjì in the Sìkù, and the Qīng editors’ decision to place it at the very head of the zhuànjì division is a substantive editorial judgment about Sòng Kǒngzǐ niánpǔ historiography. The author’s better-known Tiáoxī yúyǐn cónghuà survives separately and is among the major Sòng poetry-talk collections.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49 (biographies and niánpǔ).
- CBDB person id 43373 (Hú Shùnzhì 胡舜陟).
- Wikidata: 苕溪漁隱叢話