Zi Si

Also known as Kong Ji

Zisi, personal name Kong Ji, was the son of Kong Li and grandson of Confucius. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) says he lived to sixty-two, was once in difficulty in Song, and wrote the Doctrine of the Mean (Zhongyong). The Mencius records Duke Mu of Lu calling on him repeatedly, and bamboo slips excavated in 1993 from a Chu tomb at Guodian in Jingmen include a text titled Duke Mu of Lu Asks Zisi. The Han bibliography lists a Zisi in twenty-three chapters, now lost; Shen Yue of the Southern dynasties held that the Zhongyong, Biaoji, Fangji and Ziyi chapters of the Book of Rites came from it. The Shiji says Mencius studied with Zisi's disciples, while a later tradition makes Zisi a pupil of Zengzi. The Xunzi attacks Zisi and Mencius together, saying Zisi led the tune and Mencius sang along. He was made Marquis of Yishui by Emperor Huizong of Song in 1102 and Duke of Yi, Transmitting Sage, by the Yuan in 1330.