 Kong began studying Confucian classics in childhood.He later became a pupil of Liu Zhuo (), a renowned scholar of the time, and studied the "Shangshu" and Du Yu's annotations of the "Zuo Zhuan" under his guidance.After Emperor Yang ascended the throne of the Sui dynasty in 604, the emperor invited famous scholars and their students to his court, including Liu Zhuo and Kong Yingda.