{"id":8935,"date":"2019-11-14T23:33:08","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T23:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/chinese-reading\/the-gongyangzhuan-gong-yang-chuan-quot-commentary-by-gongyang-gao-quot\/"},"modified":"2019-11-14T23:33:08","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T23:33:08","slug":"the-gongyangzhuan-gong-yang-chuan-quot-commentary-by-gongyang-gao-quot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/de\/the-gongyangzhuan-gong-yang-chuan-quot-commentary-by-gongyang-gao-quot\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gongyangzhuan \u516c\u7f8a\u4f20 "Commentary by Gongyang [Gao]""},"content":{"rendered":"
 The Go<\/em>ngyangzhuan \u516c\u7f8a\u4f20 is a commentary to the Co<\/em>nfucian ClassicChunqiu \u6625\u79cb "Spring and Autumn Annals". It is said to have been written by Go<\/em>ngyang Gao \u516c\u7f8a\u9ad8, a disciple of Zixia \u5b50\u590f, who was himself a disciple of Confucius. During the reign of Emperor Jing \u6c49\u666f\u5e1d (r. 157-141 BCE) of the Han period \u6c49 (206 BCE-220 CE) it was declared a part of theCo<\/em>nfucian Canon to be studied in the Natio<\/em>nal University (taixue \u592a\u5b66). The most im<\/em>portant professor (boshi \u535a\u58eb "erudite") for the Go<\/em>ngyangcommentary to the Chunqiu classic was Go<\/em>ngsun Hong \u516c\u5b59\u5f18 who taught during the reign of Emperor Wu \u6c49\u6b66\u5e1d (r. 141-87 BCE). No less im<\/em>portant was his predecessor Dong Zho<\/em>ngshu \u8463\u4ef2\u8212, an expert on the Chunqiuwho also wrote the sub-classic Chunqiu fanlu \u6625\u79cb\u7e41\u9732 "Rich Dew of Spring and Autumn".<\/p>\n

The Go<\/em>ngyang commentary is ba<\/em>sed on a lot of older explanations to the events recorded in the Chunqiu chronicle. Although the names of Luzi \u9c81\u5b50, Gaozi \u9ad8\u5b50, Zi Shenzi \u5b50\u6c88\u5b50 and Zi Simazi \u5b50\u53f8\u9a6c\u5b50 are mentio<\/em>ned nothing is known a<\/em>bout their lives or their writings. What is certain is that there was a long tradition among the disciples of Co<\/em>nfucius to interprete theChunqiu annals with their own philosophy. The text obtained its final shape in the mid of the Former Han period, probably by the hands of Go<\/em>ngyang Shou \u516c\u7f8a\u5bff and Master Humu \u80e1\u6bcb\u751f. It is thus a book of the new text classic tradition.
The Go<\/em>ngyang commentary works with a question-and-answer pattern to explain the political meaning of a certain event or action. All explanations fit into the Co<\/em>nfucian co<\/em>ncept of how an ideal government, ba<\/em>sed on ritual and etiquette, should look like. The Chunqiu was thus interpreted as an exemplary book to be read by a ruler who then was instructed on good government. Bad outcome of a battle is interpreted as a lack in etiquette or as a punishment for the evil deeds of a ruler in the past. TheGo<\/em>ngyangzhuan has two main co<\/em>ncepts of state and society, namely a great unity (da yi tong \u5927\u4e00\u7edf), and secondly, a historical development in three phases (san shi shuo \u4e09\u4e16).<\/p>\n

The commentaries to the entries of 37 years in the Chunqiu annals are missing.<\/p>\n

The oldest commentary to the Go<\/em>ngyangzhuan is that of the Later Han period scholar He Xiu \u4f55\u4f11. For his Chunqiu Go<\/em>ngyang jiegu \u6625\u79cb\u516c\u7f8a\u89e3\u8bc2 he had made use of older explanations written by the early Go<\/em>ngyangprofessor Master Humu. The next commentary was written by the Song period \u5b8b (960-1279) scholar Xu Yan \u5f90\u5f66 (Go<\/em>ngyangzhuan shu \u516c\u7f8a\u4f20\u758f). Both commentaries are unified in the Chunqiu Go<\/em>ngyangzhuan zhushu \u6625\u79cb\u516c\u7f8a\u4f20\u6ce8\u758f, with the zhu commentary of He Xiu and the shu commentary of Xu Yan. The Qing period \u6e05 (1644-1911) scholar Chen Li \u9648\u7acb has written a summarizing commentary called Chunqiu Go<\/em>ngyang yishu \u6625\u79cb\u516c\u7f8a\u4e49\u758f.
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