王肃

Wang Su's life, official career and dates of birth and death are limited in publicly available sources and cannot be described in detail; it is known only that three works appear under his name, generally classified under Eastern philosophy and culture. His representative output centers on the Kongzi Jiayu (Family Sayings of Confucius), including the Wanjuanlou Chinese Classics collector's edition of the Kongzi Jiayu and the Yanshi Jiaxun, the Kongzi Jiayu in volume 2 of the first series of the Complete Reading of Ancient Chinese Culture, and the Siku Quanshu edition of the Kongzi Jiayu. These works suggest that Wang Su was concerned with the compilation and interpretation of Confucian classical texts, bearing the distinctive character of traditional scholarly annotation and commentary, recording and expounding the words and deeds of Confucius and his disciples, and possessing both documentary and intellectual value. The Kongzi Jiayu has long been valued by students of Confucianism, and its editions have exercised influence at both the popularizing and scholarly levels. Owing to limited verifiable material, this note offers only a brief account of the known works and makes no conjectures about his life.