Person
Gongsun Hong
Gongsun Hong was a senior official of the Western Han dynasty under Emperor Wu and, with Dong Zhongshu, one of the earliest proponents of Confucianism at the Han court. Born in Zichuan in present-day Shandong, a former prison officer who had made his living tending pigs, he began his political career at sixty and rose from commoner to grand secretary in 126 and chancellor in 124 BCE, the first commoner and first Confucian chancellor and the first chancellor made a marquis. His support brought into being the national academy and the imperial examination, a precedent that lasted into the twentieth century. Sima Qian and Dong Zhongshu called him a flatterer and a hypocrite.
See also
Cite this entry
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Gongsun Hong. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/gongsun-hong
- MLA
- “Gongsun Hong.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/gongsun-hong. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Gongsun Hong.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/gongsun-hong.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Gongsun Hong’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/gongsun-hong (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻