Kong Anguo

Kong Anguo
Born	ca. 156 BC
Died	ca. 74 BC
Residence	Chinese philosophy
Other names	Kong Ziguo
Academic background
School or tradition	Confucianism
Influences	Fu Sheng Shen Pei
Academic work
Era	Ancient philosophy
Main interests	Shangshu
Notable works	Shangshu Kongshi Zhuan
Influenced	Sima Qian

Kong Anguo (Chinese: 孔安國; Wade–Giles: K'ung An-kuo; ca. 156 – ca. 74 BC),courtesy name Ziguo (子國), was a Confucian scholar and government official of the Western Han dynasty of ancient China. A descendant of Confucius, he wrote the Shangshu Kongshi Zhuan, a compilation and commentary of the "Old Text" Shangshu. His work was lost, but a fourth-century forgery was officially recognized as a Confucian classic for over a millennium.

Kong Anguo was a native of Qufu in Lu, one of the many semi-autonomous kingdoms of the Western Han dynasty. He was the second son of Kong Zhong (孔忠) and an eleventh-generation descendant of Confucius. He studied the Classic of Poetry and Shangshu (Book of Documents) from the famous Confucian scholars Shen Pei and Fu Sheng. Kong also served in the court of Emperor Wu of Han as the Grand Master of Remonstrance (諫大夫).

According to tradition, the local ruler Prince Gong of Lu demolished a building of the Kong family complex in the process of enlarging his palace, and some ancient texts were discovered hidden in a wall, including Shangshu. They had apparently been hidden there in order to escape the book burning of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. This version of Shangshu contained 16 more chapters than the one transmitted by Fu Sheng. As the hidden texts were written in the ancient seal script, this newly discovered version is called "Ancient Script" or "Old Text" Shangshu, whereas Fu Sheng's version is called the "Modern Script" or "New Text". Kong Anguo compiled and wrote a commentary to the Old Text called Shangshu Kongshi Zhuan (尚書孔氏傳, literally Kong's Commentary of Shangshu), and the famous historian Sima Qian studied the text from him.

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