Dōngjiā zájì 東家雜記
Miscellaneous Records of the Eastern Household by 孔傳 (撰)
About the work
A two-juàn topical compilation of materials on the Confucian descent line and the cult of Confucius at Qūfù 曲阜, prepared by Kǒng Chuán 孔傳 (zì Shìwén 世文), the forty-seventh-generation descendant of Confucius. The “Eastern Household” (Dōngjiā 東家) is a self-designation of the Kǒng family of Qūfù. Juàn 1 is divided into nine sections covering the surname genealogy, Confucius’s birthday and death anniversary, his mother née Yán 顏 and his wife née Qíguān 亓官, posthumous canonizations, successive enfeoffments, the inheritance and reform of noble titles, the establishment of the Yǎnshènggōng 衍聖公 hereditary title, and local offices held by Kǒng descendants. Juàn 2 is in twelve sections, treating the temple of Confucius, the cypresses said to have been planted by his hand, the Apricot Altar (xìngtán 杏壇), the rear hall, the small portrait of Confucius, the temple cypresses and ancient steles, the imperially composed Sòng-dynasty stele, exterior antiquities, the tomb of the Duke of Qí (Confucius’s father), and the antiquities and steles of the Zǔlín 祖林 cemetery. The text is preceded by a single essay, Kǒngzǐ shēngnián yuèrì kǎoyì 孔子生年月日考異, on the discrepancies in the dating of Confucius’s birth between the Gōngyáng, Gǔliáng, and Zuǒ commentaries, the Shǐjì, the Shǐjì suǒyǐn, and Hóng Xìngzǔ’s 洪興祖 Quēlǐ pǔxì 闕里譜系.
Tiyao
Dōngjiā zájì, in two juàn, compiled by Kǒng Chuán of the Sòng. Chuán, courtesy name Shìwén, was the forty-seventh-generation descendant of the Sage. At the beginning of the Jiànyán period (1127–) he followed Kǒng Duānyǒu 孔端友 in the southward crossing and settled in Qúzhōu 衢州. In the Shàoxīng period he rose to Yòucháoyìdàfū 右朝議大夫, prefect of Fǔzhōu 撫州 with concurrent commission as Promoter of Agriculture in the locality, and was enfeoffed as Xiānyuánxiàn kāiguónán 仙源縣開國男. This compilation was completed in Shàoxīng jiǎchén (the original preface in fact has jiǎyín 紹興甲寅 = 1134; the tiyao’s jiǎchén 甲辰 = 1144 seems to be a slip — flagged here). The upper juàn is divided into nine categories: surname genealogy, the Sage’s birth and death dates, the mother née Yán, the wife née Qíguān, posthumous canonizations, successive enfeoffments, the inheritance and reform of titles, the Yǎnshènggōng enfeoffment, and local offices. The lower juàn is divided into twelve categories: the Sage’s temple, the hand-planted cypresses, the Apricot Altar, the rear hall, the small portrait of the Sage, the temple cypresses, the temple’s ancient steles, the present dynasty’s imperial stele, the antiquities outside the temple, the tomb of the Duke of Qí, the antiquities of the Zǔlín, and the ancient steles in the Lín. Because his time was not far removed from antiquity, many old traces still survived; and because Chuán himself grew up in Xiānyuán and saw all this with his own eyes, his record is unusually concise and well-attested. Prefixed is the Kǒngzǐ shēngnián yuèrì kǎoyì. At the end is appended a Nándù miàojì 南渡廟記 dated Bǎoyòu 2 (1254) by Rúténg 汝騰, and at the front a postface dated Chúnyòu 11 (1251), ninth month, by Qùjí 去疾. These two were Sòng imperial-clansmen and so write without surnames. Qùjí remarks that an old colophon by Yǐn Méijīn 尹梅津 was no longer present in his copy but a new postface of Chúnxī 1 (1174) by Yè Mèngdé 葉夢得 had been appended — these three pieces being added in re-cuttings. Qùjí investigates the calendrical question and rebuts the various authorities, holding that since the Chūnqiū employed the Xià calendar, Confucius was born on the twenty-first day of the tenth month and died on the eighteenth day of the fourth month. This view is quite mistaken, perhaps because at the time the Lǐzōng emperor was much honouring the Dàoxué school and Hú Ānguó’s Chūnqiū commentary was in vogue, so Qùjí drew upon it for support. Qián Zēng’s 錢曾 Dúshū min-qiú jì states: “In the winter of rénxū (1682), Yè Jiǔlái passed by my Cǎotáng and showed me a Sòng-block edition of Dōngjiā zájì; I thereupon borrowed and copied it. The book was edited by the forty-seventh-generation descendant of the Sage, Kǒng Chuán; at the head it places an illustrated discussion of the Apricot Altar, recording how the Master rode out from the eastern gate of the capital to look upon the altar, climbing the steps and turning to his disciples to say, ‘this is where Zàng Wénzhòng of Lǔ swore his oaths.’ Moved by the sight, he called for the qín and sang. The song goes: ‘Hot and cold come and go, spring returns and autumn returns; the setting sun goes west and the water flows east. Where now is the warhorse of the general? Wild grasses and idle flowers fill the earth with sorrow.’ Examined against all the qín-histories, this is found nowhere; I append it here, but as to the meaning of these words, I do not know whether they are truly the song of the Master.” This song is plainly false, yet Zēng records it as if doubtful — a fault arising from his lifelong overvaluation of Sòng editions. Note also that Zēng says three juàn whereas this copy is in fact two; Zēng says it places at the head an illustrated discussion of the Apricot Altar, whereas in this copy the xìngtán is the third article of the lower juàn, with discussion but no illustration, and no such song appears. We do not know what edition Zēng was looking at; perhaps a faulty memory. Reverently presented in the ninth 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 Dōngjiā zájì is the principal Sòng-dynasty insider’s account of the Kǒng descent line and of the cult-site at Qūfù, written by the forty-seventh-generation descendant Kǒng Chuán (CBDB id 15942, fl. 1127–1134). With his cousin Kǒng Duānyǒu (the holder of the Yǎnshènggōng title), Kǒng Chuán fled south at the Jurchen invasion in 1127 and settled at Qúzhōu in modern Zhèjiāng, where the southern branch of the Kǒng family was thereafter established and where the Yǎnshènggōng title was duplicated under the Southern Sòng (the Northern branch remained in Qūfù under Jīn rule). The compilation, completed in Shàoxīng 4 (1134) according to Chuán’s own preface, organizes its material topically rather than annalistically and combines genealogical, ritual, and topographical data on the Apricot Altar, the cypresses, and the family cemetery. It is in effect the in-house gazetteer of the southern Kǒng branch’s lost ancestral seat and was treasured under the Southern Sòng for that reason; the surviving text incorporates two later Sòng paratexts (a Chúnyòu 11 / 1251 postface by an imperial clansman calling himself Qùjí 去疾 and a Bǎoyòu 2 / 1254 Nándù miàojì by another clansman called Rúténg 汝騰), as well as a Chúnxī 1 / 1174 postface by Yè Mèngdé 葉夢得 added at re-cutting. The Sìkù editors note Qián Zēng’s 錢曾 description in the Dúshū min-qiú jì of a Sòng-block edition in three juàn with an Apricot-Altar illustration and a song-fragment ascribed to Confucius, but observe that no such illustration or song is present in the WYG copy and that the editions plainly differ.
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language translation located. For the broader Kǒng-family genealogical literature and the southern Yǎnshèng-gōng line at Qúzhōu, see Thomas A. Wilson, Genealogy of the Way: The Construction and Uses of the Confucian Tradition in Late Imperial China (Stanford UP, 1995), and Christopher Agnew, “Culture and Power in the Making of the Descendants of Confucius, 1300–1800,” Late Imperial China (2018). 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 work is the earliest surviving inside account of the southern Kǒng family’s experience of the Jiànyán southward crossing of 1127. Note the catalog meta typo Shàoxīng jiǎchén (1144) in the Sìkù tiyao, against the original preface’s Shàoxīng jiǎyín (1134) — preserved here as a slip.
Links
- Wilkinson 2018, Chinese History: A New Manual §49 (biographies and niánpǔ).
- CBDB person id 15942 (Kǒng Chuán 孔傳).