Kongzi jiyu 孔子集語

Kongzi jiyu 孔子集語 "Collected sayings of Confucius" is a collection of sayings attributed to the philosopher Confucius (551-479 BCE). It is written as a kind of supplement to the so-called "Confucian Analects" Lunyu 論語 by assembling quotations laid into the mouth of the Master which are not found in the Analects, but quoted in other texts.

Xue Ju's 薛據 Kongzi jiyu 孔子集語

The first book of this title was compiled during the Southern Song period 南宋 (1127-1279) by Xue Ju 薛據 (dates not known, xxx). In the original version, each of the 20 juan corresponded to one chapter. The received version is arranged in 3 juan, but the text is unabridged and unaltered. Xue Ju collected sayings of Confucius and dialogs between him and his disciples that were not included in the Lunyu. In his foreword, Xue Ju says that the did use all kinds of ancient books, except the Zengzi 曾子, Da Dai Liji 大戴禮記, Kongcongzi 孔叢子, Kongzi jiayu 孔子家語, Zuozhuan 左氏, Zhuangzi 莊子, Xunzi 荀子, and Liezi 列子. Yet this statement is not quite correct, because the Kongzi jiyu does indeed quote from some of those sources, as well as from the biography of Confucius in the history Shiji 史記.

The arrangement of the quotations is not very good. He quotes, for example, from three very different paragraphs in the dictionary Shuowen jiezi 說文解字, and subsumes these heterogeneous statements under one paragraph. Xue's collection is also by no means complete. He does not, for instance, refer to quotations in the book Hanfeizi 韓非子 or those in the Huainanzi 淮南子. In spite of these shortcomings, the Kongzi jiyu contains numerous fragments quoted in books, which have long since lost.

The oldest surviving print was produced by the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) scholar Zhong Renjie 鍾仁傑 (xxx). In 1737, it was printed by Kong Guangqi 孔廣啓 xxx, Duke Yansheng 衍聖公. It included in the series Tang-Song congshu 唐宋叢書, Siku quanshu 四庫全書 and Zishu baizhong 子書百種. The best version is that of the Tianyige Library 天一閣.

Kongzi yiyu 孔子遺語 is a collection of sayings of Confucius compiled by an unknown person as a supplement to Xue Ju's Kongzi jiyu.

Sun Xingyan's 孫星衍 Kongzi jiyu 孔子集語

Another compilation with the title Kongzi jiyu 孔子集語 was published during the Qing period 清 (1644-1911) by Sun Xingyan 孫星衍 (1753-1818), in 1816. Older supplements to the "Sayings" were either lost (as Emperor Wu's 梁武帝 Kongzi zhengyan 孔子正言 from the Liang period or Wang Bo's 王勃 Ci lunyu 次論語 from the Tang period), or incomplete, as Yang Jian's 楊簡 xxx Xiansheng daxun 先聖大訓, Pan Shida's 潘士達 (fl. 1592) Lunyu waipian 論語外篇 or Cao Tingdong's 曹廷棟 xxx Kongzi yiyu 孔子逸語.

While the Kongzi jiyu collection by Xue Ju mainly quoted from the sub-classics Chunqiu fanlu 春秋繁露 and Hanshi waizhuan 韓詩外傳, Sun Xingyan and his collaborators Sun Xinghai 孫星海 xxx and Gong Qing 龔慶 xxx collected only quotations from Confucian classics and their commentaries, as well as from Confucian treatises, apocryphal classics, history books, various books of the literary category "Masters and philosophers", and encyclopaedias from the Tang 唐 (618-907) and Song 宋 (960-1279) periods.

The book is 17 juan-long and divided into 17 chapters, each dealing with one aspect of Confucius' teachings. Inside the chapters, quotations are arranged hierarchically according to the type of book, beginning with the Classics. The structure of the book was inspired by Liu Xiang's 劉向 (79-8 or 77-6 BCE) Shuoyuan 說苑 and Xinxu 新序. The last three chapters quote from Daoist philosophers and other "Masters".

Sun Xingyan's Kongzi jiyu is included in the series Pingjinguan congshu 平津館叢書, Ershierzi 二十二子, Baizi quanshu 百子全書 and Zishu ershiwu zhong 子書二十五種. In 1936, the collection was by the Guangyi Shuju 廣益書局 in Shanghai published as Kongzi jiyu jijie 孔子集语集解, and in 1989 by the Shanghai guji Press 上海古籍出版 as a facsimile edition.