Gongyangzhuan 公羊傳

Gongyangzhuan 公羊傳 is a commentary on the Confucian Classic Chunqiu 春秋 "Spring and Autumn Annals". It is said to have been written by Gongyang Gao 公羊高, a disciple of Zixia 子夏, who was himself a disciple of Confucius. During the reign of Emperor Jing 漢景帝 (r. 157-141 BCE) of the Han dynasty 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) the book was declared part of the Confucian Canon, and was therefore to be studied at the National University (taixue 太學). The most important "erudite" (boshi 博士) for the Gongyang Commentary was Gongsun Hong 公孫弘 (200-121 BCE), who taught during the reign of Emperor Wu 漢武帝 (r. 141-87 BCE).

Nearly as important was his predecessor Dong Zhongshu 董仲舒 (179-104 BCE), an expert on the Chunqiu who had written the book Chunqiu fanlu 春秋繁露 "Rich dew of Spring and Autumn", a text that was later rated as a sub-classic.

The Gongyang Commentary is based on a great number of older explanations of the events recorded in the Chunqiu chronicle. Although the names of Luzi 魯子, Gaozi 高子, Zi Shenzi 子沈子 and Zi Simazi 子司馬子 are mentioned as authors of these precursory texts, nothing is known about their lives or their writings. What is certain is that there was a long tradition among the disciples of Confucius to interpret the Chunqiu Annals through their own philosophy. The text obtained its final shape in the middle of the Former Han period 前漢 (206 BCE-8 CE), probably through Gongyang Shou 公羊壽 and Master Humu (Huwu) 胡毋生. It is thus a book of the new-text classic tradition.

The Gongyang Commentary works with a question-and-answer pattern to explain the political meaning of a certain event or action. All explanations fit into the Confucian concept of how an ideal government, based on ritual and etiquette, should be. The Chunqiu was thus interpreted as an exemplary book to be read by a ruler who would then be informed on the way of good government. Bad outcome of a battle was interpreted as a lack in etiquette or a punishment for a ruler's former evil deeds. The Gongyangzhuan has two main concepts of state and society, namely a great unity (da yi tong 大一統) and secondly an historical development in three phases (san shi shuo 三世說), the last of which was the period during which Confucius lived and was an eyewittnes and even an actor in the events described in the Annals.

The method of interpretation in the Gongyangzhuan is often described as "explaining great matters by small words" (wei yan da yi 微言大義), a circumstance that gave the text a somewhat mysterious and apocryphal character.

The commentaries on the entries of 37 years in the Chunqiu Annals are missing.

The oldest commentary on the Gongyangzhuan was written by He Xiu 何休 (129-182). For his Chunqiu Gongyang jiegu 春秋公羊解詁 he had made use of older explanations written by the early Gongyang erudite Master Humu. The next commentary was written during the Song period 宋 (960-1279) by Xu Yan 徐彥 (Gongyangzhuan shu 公羊傳疏). Both commentaries were integrated in the book Chunqiu Gongyangzhuan zhushu 春秋公羊傳注疏, together with the zhu 注 commentary of He Xiu and the shu 疏 commentary of Xu Yan. The Qing-period 清 (1644-1911) scholar Chen Li 陳立 (1810-1882) wrote a summarizing commentary called Chunqiu Gongyang yishu 春秋公羊義疏.