Kong Chongbi (孔崇弼)

Overview

Kong Chongbi was an official and Envoy.

Life and dates

Attested activity

AD 940 五年
Dated from the passage context · Old History of the Five Dynasties 96, passages 2, 4
AD 923 to AD 936 初仕後唐
Dated from the passage context · Old History of the Five Dynasties 96, passage 1
AD 936 to AD 944 天福中
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 96, passage 2
AD 941 明年
Dated from the passage context · Old History of the Five Dynasties 96, passages 2, 4, 6

Family

Kin of Kong Zhaoxu (孔昭序)
older clansman brother 族兄 · paternal line
younger clansman brother 族弟
Sources vary in certainty · Old History of the Five Dynasties 96, passage 1

Career and standing

Left Regular Attendant of the Cavalry 左散騎常侍
AD 936 to AD 944 天福中 · Appointed
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 96, passage 2
Supervising Censor 給事中
Appointed
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 96, passage 1
Director in the Ministry of Personnel 吏部郎中
Held
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 96, passage 1

Places and affiliations

Later Tang 後唐
Relation Served
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 96, passage 1

Works and attributed material

Speech · Subject · Direct quotation · court comment on Vice Censor Kong
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 96, passage 5

Events and relationships

Returned empty handed
AD 941 明年 · Diplomatic · Envoy
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 96, passage 6
Sent by sea
AD 940 五年 · Diplomatic · Envoy · At Hang and Yue 杭越
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 96, passage 4

Assessments and attributes

Assessment no other talent but skilled at banter and pleasing others · Mode historian-judgment
Directly stated · Old History of the Five Dynasties 96, passage 3

References in the histories

Old History of the Five Dynasties, Chapter 96Volume 96 Book of Later Jin 22: Biographies 11: Kong Chongbi, Chen Baoji, Wang Yu, Zhang Jizuo, Zhen Ruan, Hu Rao, Liu Suiqing, Fang Gao, Meng Chenghui, Liu Jixun, Zheng Shouyi, Cheng Xun, Li Yu, Zheng Xuansu, Ma Zhongji, Chen Xuan · 4 passages

Open chapter

孔崇弼，初仕後唐，自吏部郎中授給事中，時族兄昭序繇給事中改左常侍，兄弟同居門下，時論榮之。 Kong Chongbi began his career under Later Tang. Promoted from director in the Ministry of Personnel to supervising censor, he served at the same time as his older kinsman Zhaoxu, who had moved from supervising censor to left regular attendant. With both brothers holding posts in the Secretariat, contemporaries took it as a mark of family distinction.

崇弼，天福中遷左散騎常侍。 During the Tianfu era Chongbi was promoted to left regular attendant of the cavalry.

先是，浙中贈賄，每歲恒及萬緡，時議者曰：「孔常侍命奇薄，何消盈數，有命即無財，有財即無命。」 Before this, tribute gifts from Zhejiang routinely amounted to ten thousand strings of cash a year. People at court remarked, "Vice Censor Kong's fate is unusually meager—why should he need a fortune? Appointment and profit never come together for him: if he gets the post he will have no money, and if he has money he will not live to enjoy it."

故自崇弼而下，善者既書之，其不善者亦書之，庶使後之君子見善如不及，見惡如探湯也。 Therefore from Chongbi onward, virtues are recorded and faults are recorded as well, so that later gentlemen may strive toward good as if they cannot catch it and shrink from evil as from scalding water.