Though it may, at first glance, appear to be little more than a small town in the south of Shandong, QUFU (曲阜, qŭfù) is actually of immense historical and cultural importance. Confucius (孔子, kǒngzǐ) was born here around 551 BC, and, having spent his life teaching his moral code – largely unappreciated by his contemporaries – was buried just outside the town, in what became a sacred burial ground for his clan, the Kong. His teachings caught on after his death, however, and despite periodic purges (most recently during the Cultural Revolution), they have become firmly embedded in the Chinese psyche. All around the town is architectural evidence of the esteem in which he was held by successive dynasties – most monumentally by the Ming, who were responsible for the two dominant sights, the Confucius Temple and the Confucius Mansion, whose scale seems more suited to Beijing.
Qufu is an interesting place to stop over for a few days, with plenty to see concentrated in an area small enough to walk around. As it’s a major tourist destination, however, you’ll have to expect the usual crowds and hustles – especially around the end of September, on Confucius’s birthdate in the lunar calendar, when a festival is held here and reconstructions of many of the original rituals are performed. If it all gets too much, there are places to escape amid old buildings, trees and singing birds, such as the Confucian Forest to the north.
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Confucianism in modern China
Confucianism in modern China
When the Communists came to power they saw Confucianism as an archaic, feudal system and an anti-Confucius campaign was instigated, which came to a climax during the Cultural Revolution. Now, however, Conservatives frightened by the pace of change, the growing generation gap and the new materialism of China are calling for a return to Confucian values of respect and selflessness, just as their nervous counterparts in the West preach a return to family values. Confucian social morality – obeying authority, regarding family as the seat of morality and emphasizing the mutual benefits of friendship – is sometimes hailed as one of the main reasons for the success of East Asian economies, just as Protestantism provided the ideological complement to the growth of the industrialized West.
Most of the Confucian buildings in Qufu have been recently renovated, but this is strictly in the interests of tourism, not worship. Confucianism as a moral force was thought to have died, yet the ability of Chinese traditions to survive modernization and suppression always surprises observers. As one Chinese visitor commented, “Confucius is the one Chinese leader who never let the people down”.
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The Yansheng Duke and the Kong family
The Yansheng Duke and the Kong family
The status of the Yansheng Duke – the title given to Confucius’s direct male descendant – rose throughout imperial history as emperors granted him increasing privileges and hereditary titles; under the Qing dynasty, he enjoyed the unique privilege of being permitted to ride a horse inside the Forbidden City and walk along the Imperial Way inside the palace. Emperors presented the duke with large areas of sacrificial fields (so called because the income from the fields was used to pay for sacrificial ceremonies), as well as exempting him from taxes.
As a family, the Kongs remained close-knit, practising a severe interpretation of Confucian ethics. For example, any young family member who offended an elder was fined two taels (about 70g) of silver and battered twenty times with a bamboo club. Strict rules governed who could go where within the house, and when a fire broke out in the living quarters in the last century it raged for three days as only twelve of the five hundred hereditary servants were allowed to go into the area to put it out. A female family member was expected to obey her father, her husband and her son. One elderly Kong general, after defeat on the battlefield, cut his throat for the sake of his dignity. When the news reached the mansion, his son hanged himself as an expression of filial piety; after discovering the body, his wife hanged herself out of female virtue. On hearing this, the emperor bestowed the family with a board, inscribed “A family of faithfulness and filiality”.
The Kong family enjoyed the good life right up until the beginning of the twentieth century. Decline set in rapidly with the downfall of imperial rule, and in the 1920s the family was so poor that when wine was required for entertaining a guest, the servants bought it out of their own pocket, as a favour to their masters. In 1940, the last of the line, Kong Decheng, fled to Taiwan during the Japanese invasion, breaking the tradition of millennia. His sister, Kong Demao, penned In the House of Confucius, a fascinating account of life lived inside this strange family chained to the past; it’s available in foreign-language bookstores. Half of Qufu now claims descent from the Kongs, who are so numerous there is an entire local telephone directory dedicated to the letter K.
