Máo Hēng 毛亨
The “Greater Máo” (Dà Máo gōng 大毛公) of the Hàn-period Shī 詩 transmission. Native of Lǔ 魯 in some sources, of Zhào 趙 in others. Traditionally counted as the third or fourth generation of the gǔwén 古文 Shī line descending from 卜商 (Zǐxià 子夏) → Gāo Xíngzǐ 高行子 → Xuē Cāng 薛倉 → Máo Hēng. To him is ascribed the authorship of the Máoshī gǔxùn zhuàn 毛詩故訓傳 (“Old Glosses and Traditions of the Máo Shī”), which became the foundational gloss layer of the received Shījīng 詩經 (KR1c0001, KR1c0002).
The standard early account is in the Hàn shū · Rúlín zhuàn 漢書·儒林傳 and Lù Jī 陸璣’s Máoshī cǎomù niǎoshòu chóngyú shū 毛詩草木鳥獸蟲魚疏 (KR1c0005), which gives the discipular line. The historicity of “Máo Hēng” is debated; some modern scholars (e.g. Chén Mèngjiā 陳夢家) treat the figure as legendary and the Máo zhuàn as a Western Hàn editorial product. Lifedates are not recoverable; the conventional placement is mid- to late Western Hàn (2nd century BCE). His student / nephew 毛萇 (the “Lesser Máo,” Xiǎo Máo gōng 小毛公) transmitted the text to Hé Jiān Xiànwáng 河間獻王 of the Hàn imperial line, after which the recension became the only one to be transmitted intact.