Gongyang Zhuan

The Gongyang Zhuan, also known as the Gongyang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals or the Commentary of Gongyang, is a commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals, and is thus one of the Chinese classics. Along with the Zuo Zhuan and the Guliang Zhuan, the work is one of the Three Commentaries on the Spring and Autumn Annals. In particular, Gongyang Zhuan is a central work to New Text Confucianism (今文經學), which advocates Confucius as an institutional reformer instead of a respected scholar, and Chunqiu as an embodiment of Confucius' holistic vision on political, social, and moral issues instead of a merely chronicle. Gongyang Zhuan significantly influenced the political institution in Han Dynasty. It fell out of favor among elites and was eventually replaced by the Zuo Zhuan. Gongyang Zhuan scholarship was reinvigorated in late Ming Dynasty and became a major source of inspiration for Chinese reformers from eighteen to early twentieth century. Sima Qian states that Mencius, Gongsun Gu, Xunzi and Han Fei often drew on the Gongyang, while actually they drew on commentaries similar to what we now call the Zuozhuan; for him the distinction was meaningless. Gongyang Zhuan argues that Chunqiu is not merely a history, but a magnum opus of Confucius' ideas regarding sociopolitical order. Unlike Zuo Zhuan, a later favorite among many scholars for its vivid narrative of historical events, Gongyang Zhuan was compiled in a dialogistic style resembling a class conversation between a Confucian scholar and his student discussing the profound meanings behind the subtle words of Chunqiu and was brief in explaining the historical context. Because of its emphasis on the theoretical interpretation of the Annals, Jiang Qing (b. 1953) dubbed it "the political theory wing of Confucianism (政治儒學)." The primary assumption of Gongyang Zhuan is that Confucius authored Chunqiu in order to criticize the politics of his time and set a constitutional guideline for future generations.