Chunyu Kun

Chunyu Kun (Chinese: 淳于髡; pinyin: Chúnyú Kūn; Wade–Giles: Ch'un-yü K'un, variant: Shun-yü K'wan) (4th century BC) was a wit, Confucian philosopher, emissary, and official during the Chinese Warring States period. He was a contemporary and colleague of Mencius.

In the Records of the Grand Historian, Chunyu Kun appears in Linzi, the capital of the northern state of Qi, as an adviser to the chief minister under King Wei of Qi, and as a master scholar at the Jixia Academy, the foremost institution of learning in ancient China. He is said to be "a man of Qi who lived with his wife's family. He was less than five feet tall. Thanks to his wit and his ready tongue he was sent several times as an envoy to other states and was never worsted in argument." He is discussed in the chapter called "Jesters" (ch. 126, Huaji liezhuan 滑稽列傳).

"There is widespread agreement that the Yanzi Chunqiu [晏子春秋] (The Spring and Autumn Annals of Minister Yan Ying) was an anthology of the writings of Jixia scholars. It is quite probable that it was composed by followers of Chunyu Kun."

There are several famous stories about Chunyu Kun. In a rhetorical argument with Mencius, he tried to get Mencius to say that, because men and women should never touch each other, it was wrong to save one's sister-in-law from drowning. Mencius replied that someone who would not rescue the woman is a wolf. Kun said, "'The whole kingdom is drowning. How strange it is that you will not rescue it!' Mencius answered, 'A drowning kingdom must be rescued with right principles, as a drowning sister-in-law has to be rescued with the hand. Do you wish me to rescue the kingdom with my hand?'"

Chunyu Kun was so influential with the king of Qi that he was able to present scholars for promotion and introduce foreign advisers to the king. He was "a Qi nobleman famous for his erudition."

Chunyu Kun was also at the origin of the four-character idiom 送客留髡 (pinyin=sòngkè liúkūn), which means "sending off the guests, Kun is left behind." This means "getting lucky" and refers to his joke that he would drink a single cup of wine with the emperor, but a cask if he was with courtesans and had sent off all the other guests.

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