Among the exegetical works on the Confucian classic The Book of Documents recorded in the Bibliography section of the Sui-shu there is a 3-juan work titled Shangshu-yi, whose authored was named as a certain Mr. Liu (Liu Xiansheng). As the work in question has long been lost it was not known who the author really was. Qing scholars like Zhu Yizun thought that this Mr. Liu must have been either Liu Zhuo or Liu Xuan, since these two figures were famous scholars of the Sui. But no evidence was provided for this surmise, and indeed it would have been contradictory to the bibliographic convention of the Sui-shu.

    This paper argues that the Mr. Liu (Liu Xiansheng) in question was in fact Liu Xian, an eminent Confucian scholar of the Southern Qi dynasty. The standard history has it that in the year 502 Emperor Wudi of the Liang dynasty ordered in an edict the erection of a memorial stele for Liu Xian and bestowed upon him the posthumous name of “Zhenjian xiansheng” (Mr. Zhenxian), and accordingly Liu was referred to by contemporaries as Liu Zhenjian, or simply as Mr. Liu. The annotations by “Mr. Liu” appearing in an incomplete scroll manuscript of the Xiaojing yiji founded in Dunhuang also provide collateral evidence. The quotations of Mr. Liu therein are preceded by the expression “Liu Xian comments”. The reason for the ambiguity over this authorship problem seems to be this: Since the bibliographic source of the Sui-shu was the Wudai shizhi, whose author was not too familiar with works by southern scholars, it was unable to specify that that Mr. Liu was Liu Xian.

Keywords: Bibliography Monograph of Sui-shu, The Book of Documents, Liu Xiangsheng (Mr. Liu), Liu Xian