A Study Of Kong Guang - Sen 's "Spring And Autumn"

Kong Guangsen is a famous scholar of "Qian Jia School". His famous work gongyang tongyi is the earliest published book on the study of gongyang which bears much controversy. The supporters praise it as "a specialist’s comprehensive study", while the opponents criticize it as "going against gong yang’s doctrine". Meanwhile, Kong Guangsen’s personal experience is thought-provoking. He was a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination in his teen age, and became an offical in National Academy. But he would rather quit the job and focus on the study. He suffered from a terrible family tragedy and was deeply depressed. Then he died at his middle age, and left behind very limited information which causes a lot of mysteries about the origins of his study, his thoughts on the Confucian Classics and even the reason why he choses to withdraw from the public life.This paper starts with a search about Kong Guangsen’s profound family heritage and life experience to identify his study origin. I shall argue there are three origins: the first is from his extradinary family education; the second is from his several superviors; the third is from the officials who have worked with Kong Guangsen in the Imperial Library. Therefore, Kong’s main research method is the Han school of classical philology with an open mind to Neo-Confucianism and the coherence of different theories of different ages. Although the trend of the The Spring and Autunm Annuals’’study is inclined towards "Zuo Zhuan", there are several scholars working on the study of gongyang. Moreover, when pondering the situation he deals with as an offical in the National Academy, we can find out that he is actually under a government with high pressure. It is not hard for us to understand why he is not content with his situation and decides to quit. So he turns to the study of gongyang zhuan to show his attitude that he would not cooperate with the Emperor and associate with the evil elements. His study origins and the situation of the study on The Spring and Autunm Annuals provide the source and method, while the political circumstance is the direct cause.The centual idea of gongyang tongyi is comprehensive understanding on the gongyangzhuan and obscure meaning on politics. On the one hand, Kong establishes a system including "tiandao", "wangfa", "renqing" when he takes into account both the meanings and the regulations, both the Han school of classical philology and the Neo-Confucianism. On the other hand, he obeys the study of Han school to the maximum degree with keeping the meanings and the regulations and describes his true thoughts about "wanglushuo", "huayizhibian", "sanshishuo" on the condition that he is free from the literary inquisition. In a word, he determines to illustrate the lofty ideal of Confucian in the Classics as a King without a throne, carry forward the philosophy of Mencius, and deliver his own thought on cleaning up the political situation.When we look back the path of the study on The Spring and Autunm Annuals va. the Qing Dynasty, gongyang tongyi lays the foundation of the study on gongyang. Kong tries to resume the Han school of classical philology on gongyang for the first time, to establish a whole system of yili (义例) with the method of shucibishi (属辞 比事), and to make great effort to retain the doctrine of Dong Zhongshu and He Xiu about the purpose of Confucius on writing The Spring and Autimm Annuals which are groundbreaking. However, because of the high pressure, he cannot express the sankejiuzhi (三科九旨)and transmit the idea of change. Compare gongyangtongyi with the studies of ZhuangCunyu, Liu Fenglu,Chen Li on The Spring and Autumn Annuals in different periods, the influence of political circumstances on the scholarship is prominent which explains Kong Guangsen’s limitations as a scholar. Moreover, the analysis of the comments after the publication of gongyang tongyi is helpful to distinguish the growth and decline of Han school of classical philology and the Neo-Confucianism, and understand the study of gongyangzhuan as an instrument of spreading political ideas since the political reformation becomes an irreversible trend. This phenomenon displays the complicated relationship between scholarship and politics. In a word, it is truly extradinary for Kong Guangsen to maintain an independent position under the tyranny as one of the QianJia scholars.