Kǒng Yǐngdá 孔穎達
Style names Zhòngdá 仲達 and Chōngyuǎn 沖遠. Native of Héngshuǐ 衡水 in Jì zhōu 冀州 (modern southern Héběi). Thirty-second-generation lineal descendant of Confucius. Lifedates 574–648 (Suí and early Táng).
Took the xiùcái (Suí) and rose through Suí offices (Guójiāng kāo gōng láng 國子監考功郎); under the early Táng held a series of court appointments culminating in Director of the Imperial Academy (Guózǐ jìjiǔ 國子祭酒, the highest scholarly office in the empire). Jiù Tángshū juan 73 and Xīn Tángshū juan 198 (Rúlín) give substantial biographies; the Xīn Tángshū notice in particular emphasizes his role in fixing the imperial-examination orthodoxy.
The defining act of his career is his leadership of the imperial commission that produced the Wǔ jīng zhèngyì 五經正義 (“Correct Meanings of the Five Classics”) under Tàizōng’s edict — official subcommentaries on the Yì, Shū, Shī, Lǐjì, and Zuǒ zhuàn, first compiled 642 (Zhēnguān 16), revised after Yán Shīgǔ’s 顏師古 critiques, and promulgated 653 (Yǒnghuī 4) under Gāozōng. The set determined imperial-examination orthodoxy on the Five Classics for the rest of the Táng and was inherited as the canonical sub-commentary in the Sòng Shísān jīng zhùshū tradition.
For the Yì, his commission selected Wáng Bì–Hán Kāngbó’s Zhōuyì zhù (KR1a0006) as the canonical-note layer (against Zhèng Xuán’s KR1a0003 / KR1a0004 line) and produced the sub-commentary that systematically expounds it (= KR1a0007 Zhōuyì zhèngyì / Zhōuyì zhùshū). For the other classics: Shàngshū zhèngyì, Máoshī zhèngyì, Lǐjì zhèngyì, and Chūnqiū Zuǒ zhuàn zhèngyì; all four likewise become the canonical TángSòng sub-commentaries.
Kǒng’s editorial decisions — to canonize Wáng Bì for the Yì, the older “Confucius–Kǒng Ānguó” pseudo-commentary for the Shū, Mǎo Hēng + Zhèng Xuán + the Máoshī xù for the Shī, Zhèng Xuán for the Lǐjì, and Dù Yù for the Zuǒ zhuàn — fixed the medieval canon’s exegetical complexion for nearly a millennium. The Sìkù tiyao on KR1a0007 gives a measured but critical assessment of his Yì sub-commentary’s partisan character.