From 551 BC to 479 BC, in the magical land of China in the east of the world, a great figure who had a profound impact on the world appeared, his name was Confucius. Confucius, Mingqiu, Zi Zhongni, a native of Luguo Yi (present-day Qufu, Shandong) during the Spring and Autumn Period, was one of the most erudition scholars at that time, and was revered as the "Saint of Heaven" and "Heavenly Muduo", and the rulers of later generations were revered as saints, saints, saints, saints, masters of Dacheng, and masters of all ages.
This teacher Kong advocated benevolence, righteousness, wisdom and faith, and created private lectures. Legend has it that he had three thousand disciples and seventy-two sages. He led some of his disciples around the world for thirteen years, but his life was full of difficulties. After Confucius's death, his disciples recorded his words and thoughts and compiled them into the Analects. Confucius's thought has a profound impact on China and the world, and it is listed as the first of the "world's top ten cultural celebrities".
Confucius must have had two things to think of: First, he was revered by later generations as the founder of the Confucian school and the founder of Confucianism. With the expansion of Confucius's influence, Confucius sacrifices also once became "great ancestors" at the level of God and the state, and this honor was only available to Confucius in China. The other is that his descendants created the Kong family tree to pass on to the world, which has become the longest preserved and most complete family tree in today's human society.
Confucius was passed down seven generations after his death, and since the eighth generation, it has begun to gradually multiply, and after more than 2500 years, its descendants have spread all over the world.
In 219 BC, when Qin Shi Huang toured the county in the east, he named Confucius's 9th generation grandson Kong Yu as Wen Tongjun, setting a precedent for rewarding Confucius's descendants. In 195 BC, Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, enfeoffed Confucius's 9th grandson Kong Teng (Kong Qi's brother) as the "Worship Emperor" and was responsible for Confucius's sacrifices. In 43 BC, the Han Yuan Emperor made Confucius's 13th generation grandson Kong Ba the Taishi, which was also the beginning of the hereditary title of Confucius's descendants.
In 1055, Emperor Renzong of Song officially made Confucius the 46th generation of Sun Kongzong as the Duke of Yansheng. Since then, the hereditary title of Yan Sheng Gong has been extended through the Northern Song Dynasty, Jin Dynasty, Southern Song Dynasty, Yuan, Ming, Qing, and Republic of China, and has continued until the 31st generation. By the time of the last YanShengGong Kong Decheng, it had been circulating for more than 800 years.
The Kong family used the generational arrangement, beginning with Confucius's 54th grandson Kong Sihan during the reign of Emperor Renzong of the Yuan Dynasty. Kong Sihan proposed that the descendants of the Kong clan of this generation all used the word "si" and took a unified name, and the 55th generation used the word "ke" as the character generation. At first, the Kong family tree only included the eldest son and eldest grandson of the direct line, and later began to branch and collect. For more than a thousand years, the Kong family tree has maintained a clear vein, the branches are orderly, and they have undergone dynastic changes. In the ninth year of the Qianlong Dynasty, the Kong family began to draw up a 30-character genealogy: "Xiyan Gongyan Cheng, Hongwen Zhen Shangyan, Xingyu Chuanguang, Zhaoxian Qing fanxiang, Ling Dewei You, Qin Shaonian Xianyang." Thus the names of the descendants of Confucius from the 56th to the 85th generation are clear. According to the genealogy, it is clear which generation of Kong's descendants to distinguish at a glance. Kong Xiangxi, one of the "four major families" of the Republic of China period, is the 75th generation descendant of Confucius, and his son Kong Lingkan is the 76th generation descendant of Confucius, and Ms. Kong Demao, who was a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, is the 77th generation descendant of Confucius.
On February 23, 1920, The concubine of Kong Lingyi, the Duke of Yansheng, gave birth to a baby boy, and firecrackers were set off throughout Qufu, and the Beiyang government also ordered the firing of 13 salutes in Qufu to celebrate the "unbroken descent of the holy people". When this infant named Kong Decheng reached the age of 100 days, Kong De, who was in his infancy by Xu Shichang, then president of the Republic of China, became the 31st generation of Yan Shenggong. "Yan Sheng Gong" is a title that only the male descendants of Confucius can inherit.
In the Song Dynasty, Yan Sheng Gong was equivalent to eight pin officials, the Yuan Dynasty was promoted to three pins, in the early years of the Ming Dynasty was a pin civil official, and later "the head of the ban lie civil officials", the Qing Dynasty also authorized to ride horses in the Forbidden City and walk on the royal road. The Yansheng Gongfu (now Kongfu), where the Successive Yansheng Gonggong lived, is the largest mansion in the country after the Ming and Qing Imperial Palaces, and as a noble family that has been knighted in the world, the prominence and respect of the Confucius family have been unique since ancient times.
The birth of Kong Decheng, the last YanshengGong, proves that the Confucius family, as the world's longest-lasting aristocratic family, has existed for more than 2,000 years. Hereditary nobility that transcends dynastic succession and change. Looking around the world, the Egyptian pharaonic family, the British Elizabeth and other powerful families can not match it.
Kong Lingyi, the 76th generation of kong clan, also drew up 20 characters "Jiandao Dun Anding, Mao Xiu Zhao Yichang, Yuwen Huan Jingrui, Yongxi Shi Xuchang" for the continuation of the descendants of the Kong family. In this way, the name of kong's descendants was extended from the 86th generation to the 105th generation.
Before the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Japan tried to lure the last Emperor Kong Decheng to Japan. In December 1937, when Qufu fell, Chiang Kai-shek sent troops to protect the 17-year-old Kong Decheng from Qufu overnight. Confucius's 77th grandson Kong Deyong recalled: "Chiang Kai-shek did a good thing. If Kong Decheng fell into the hands of the Japanese, the consequences would be unimaginable. At the very least, he would be kidnapped to Japan and enshrined as a 'false saint' in name only. "During the fall of Qufu, the Japanese revered Confucius as a god, revered it, and did not dare to invade it.
The Confucius family began with Confucius for seven consecutive generations, and it was not until the eighth generation of Kong Qian that they gave birth to three sons. By the time of Liu Zhao (57-88), the Zhang Emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were only more than 60 men over the age of 20 in the Confucius family, and at this time, more than 500 years had passed since the life period of Confucius (551 BC to 479 BC).
Confucius, who had wandered the nations all his life but encountered walls everywhere, never imagined that more than 2500 years after his death, his ideas and doctrines would be widely concerned and revered around the world, which was a great miracle. And Confucius did not expect that the total number of people entering the "Genealogy of Confucius Family" exceeded 2 million, witnessing the inheritance history of the Kong family.
The family tree of the Kong family is repaired once in thirty years and majorly repaired in sixty years, and it is the most well-organized family in the world. In Qufu, the hometown of Confucius, the local Kong clan has been passed down to 80 generations of "You" generations, with 150,000 descendants of the Kong clan. The descendants of Confucius in the world have reached 3 million people and have been multiplied for 82 generations. Kong Chuichang, the 79th grandson of Confucius, is currently the "Dacheng Most Holy Ancestor Worship Official". Kong Youren, the 80th generation of concubines.
Confucius had a profound influence on future generations, and the Incense of the Kong family was exuberant, and the inheritance was perpetual, witnessing the history of the development of human society.