Kong Ji was a man of Lu in the early Warring States period and a leading representative of Confucianism. Chinese Wikipedia says his courtesy name was Zisi, while Wikidata's Chinese label is 孔伋 and it lists Zisi as another name. Zisi is only a courtesy name, so the heading now uses his personal name, and the English heading uses Wikidata's English alias Kong Ji.[1][2]
Life
Chinese Wikipedia says he was a grandson of Confucius and a son of Kong Li, studied under Zengzi, and served under Duke Mu of Lu. He died around 402 BCE at the age of eighty-two. Wikidata records his birth in 483 BCE and his death in 402 BCE and his state as Lu. This site's earlier structured data gives 482 to 401 BCE, a year different, and this entry does not force the two to agree but reports both as the sources give them.[1][2]
Teaching and writings
The Doctrine of the Mean, one of the Four Books, is traditionally said to be by him, but this is hard to confirm, and his own book Zisizi is lost. Mencius is said to have studied under his disciples or scholars of his school. In Xunzi's chapter Against the Twelve Masters, Zisi and Mencius are put in one group and their theory of the five conducts is criticized as perverse, obscure and unexplained. Later writers therefore pair the two as Si-Meng, and their school is called the Si-Meng school.[2]
Honors and sacrifices
The article records that in the Song dynasty Emperor Huizong made him Marquis of Yishui, that in the Yuan Emperor Wenzong made him Duke Shusheng of Yi, and that in the Ming Emperor Shizong made him Duke Shusheng. For this reason he is called the Transmitter Sage, alongside Yan Hui the Restored Sage, Zengzi the Ancestral Sage and Mencius the Second Sage. Because he is a direct ancestor of the Duke Yansheng, later dynasties did not appoint a separate sacrificial official for him, but the second son of the Duke Yansheng held the post, or, if the duke was an only son, the sacrifice was combined with his own.[2]