Collected Sayings of Confucius

This project aims to produce a complete annotated translation of Sun Xingyan’s 孫星衍 (1753–1818) Kongzi jiyu 孔子集語 (1815 Pingjin guan congshu 平津館叢書 ed.). As explained in a preface by Sun Xingyan’s friend and fellow scholar Yan Kejun 嚴可均 (1762–1843), the Kongzi jiyu is a more or less exhaustive compilation of early Confucius sayings, stories, dialogues, and testimonia preserved outside of the Lunyu 論語 (Analects) and several other canonical sources. As such, the text is a terrifically convenient guide to the not-so-canonical Confucius, a figure whose scattered textual remains (unlike the Analects) are largely inaccessible to beginning students.

Stage one of the project will focus on producing a transcription of chapters one and two together with an English translation. In stage two, I hope to enlist the help of other scholars and/or students to produce a complete annotated translation of the text (including relevant intertextual parallels). In stage three, I intend to add additional passages omitted by Sun Xingyan in his edition of the text, including Kongzi material from recently excavated manuscripts. Additional information about the progress of the project can be found in the "Project Log" annotation layer.

In the fall of 2016, I undertook the initial translation of chapters one and two. In the spring term of 2017, five students joined the project as part of a "Topics in Early Chinese Thought" seminar here at Yale and undertook the initial translation of a number of chapters. They are Bryan Lynch (14a), Ryan Mitchell (6), Song Shennan (8), and Yvonne Ye (7). As of 3/10/17, many of the translations that have been uploaded have not yet been edited or annotated.