author
Fu Kong
d. -208
An early Chinese lexicographer from the late Warring States to early Han period, remembered for compiling a compact dictionary that helped explain classical vocabulary and categories of the natural and social world.
1 Audiobook
孔叢子
by Fu Kong
About the author
Fu Kong is credited with the Xiao Erya (Hsiao Erh-ya), an early Chinese dictionary-like work often dated to around 264–208 BCE. The book is arranged by subject and expands on the older Erya tradition, gathering definitions for words about kinship, objects, animals, plants, measurements, and other parts of everyday and learned life.
Because he lived in antiquity, very little biographical detail about his personal life appears to be firmly documented in the sources consulted here. What stands out instead is the lasting value of his work: Xiao Erya has been preserved, cataloged by major library projects, and continues to be read as part of the long history of Chinese lexicography and classical scholarship.