Temple and Cemetery of Confucius and the Kong Family Mansion in Qufu
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How it came to be
Confucius (551–479 BC) was buried north of Qufu on the bank of the Si River. Two years after his death his house in Qufu was turned into a temple holding his clothes, musical instruments, carriage and books. From the Han dynasty emperors and officials came to offer sacrifices, and the temple was rebuilt in AD 153 and 611; by 1012 it had more than 300 rooms.
After a fire in 1499 the temple was rebuilt at its present scale, and another fire in 1724 largely destroyed the main hall. Confucius's descendants, holding the hereditary title of Duke Yansheng, lived in the Kong Family Mansion and cared for the temple and cemetery. The mansion was moved to its present site in 1377 and in 1503 was enlarged to 560 rooms around nine courtyards.
The cemetery holds the tombs of more than 100,000 descendants. The last head of the family to live in the mansion was Kong Decheng of the 77th generation, who left for Chongqing in 1937 during the Second Sino-Japanese War and later moved to Taiwan. In November 1966, during the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards from Beijing Normal University seriously damaged the cemetery. The three sites were inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1994.
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