Kǒng Qiū 孔丘 (551–479 BCE)
Zì Zhòngní 仲尼; later styled Kǒngzǐ 孔子, Confucius. Native of Zōuyì 陬邑 in the state of Lǔ 魯 (modern Qūfù 曲阜, Shāndōng), of an aristocratic but impoverished Sòng-descended Lǔ family. The pre-eminent figure of the Confucian tradition; teacher to a community of disciples whose dialogues with the Master, recorded and transmitted, became the Lúnyǔ 論語.
The principal early biography is the Kǒngzǐ shìjiā 孔子世家 in Shǐjì 史記 47, supplemented by the Zhòngní dìzǐ lièzhuàn 仲尼弟子列傳 (juan 67) and notices throughout the Zuǒzhuàn 左傳 and Lúnyǔ itself. Conventional dates are 551–479 BCE; he was an itinerant counsellor in Lǔ, Wèi, Sòng, Chén, Cài, and Chǔ before returning to Lǔ to teach.
Confucius is not the author of any work in the Sì shū (the Lúnyǔ is a posthumous compilation by his disciples and grand-disciples; the Dàxué 大學 is a Lǐjì chapter conventionally attributed to his disciple Zēngzǐ 曾參; the Zhōngyōng 中庸 to his grandson Zǐsī 子思 / Kǒng Jí 孔伋), but the entire Sì shū tradition turns on his teaching. Late Hàn and Song traditions also credit him with editing the Five Classics: the Yì 易, Shū 書, Shī 詩, Lǐ 禮, and Chūnqiū 春秋 — though only the Chūnqiū is securely his own redaction. His attributed compilation of the Xiào jīng 孝經 is similarly a Hàn-period attribution.
Surviving works in Kanripo to which he is the subject rather than the author: the Lúnyǔ canonical text KR1h0004; HànWèi jíjiě edition by Hé Yàn KR1h0005, KR1h0006; Sòng zhèngyì KR1h0007; Hán Yù / Lǐ Áo Lúnyǔ bǐjiě KR1h0008; and the entire Sì shū tradition through Zhū Xī’s Sì shū jí zhù and its later commentaries.