Page:A Chinese Biographical Dictionary.djvu/416

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A Chinese Biographical Dictionary
397

1037 Kung Yü 貢禹 (T. 小翁). 1st cent B.C. A native of Lang-yeh in Shantung, who brought himself into notice by his wide knowledge of the Classics. It was said that when his friend 王陽 Wang Yang was appointed to office, he flicked the dust off his own official hat, knowing that he would soon be recommended for employment. After a somewhat chequered career, he became Censor under the Emperor Yüan Ti, B.C. 48—32, a post which he filled with much courage and zeal. He advised that the money spent upon horses, parks, bull-fighting, etc., should rather be saved and given to the poor.


1038 K'ung An-kuo 孔安國 (T. 子國). 2nd cent. B.C. A descendant of Confucius in the twelfth degree. He was employed in deciphering the text of the Canon of History which had been discovered when pulling down the house of K'ung Fu, and transcribed large portions of it from the seal character into the prevailing li script, with a preface of his own. His work disappeared about the 4th cent. A.D., and that which now does duty is regarded by the majority of scholars as a forgery from the hand of 梅賾 Mei Chi. He also wrote a commentary on the Analects, and another on the Canon of Filial Piety. In 647 his tablet was placed in the Confucian Temple.


1039 K'ung Ch'ao-fu 孔巢父 (T. 弱翁). 8th cent. A.D. A descendant of Confucius in the 37th generation. He was an ardent student and went into retirement on a mountain in Shantung, refusing to serve under Tung Lin Wang, whence he came to be enrolled as one of the Six Idlers of the Bamboo Grove (see Li Po). He subsequently rose to high office under the Emperors Tai Tsung and Tê Tsung, and was appointed to operate against Li Huai-kuang. His conduct however was unsatisfactory; his soldiers mutinied, and he was slain. Canonised as 忠.


1040 K'ung Chi 孔伋 (T. 子思). Born about B.C. 500. Grandson