The revered Chinese thinker and educator Confucius (551-478 BC)
received due respect at his 2557th birthday anniversary ceremonies
from people across the Taiwan Straits yesterday.
At his hometown Qufu in east China's Shandong Province, 2,557 people including Zhou
Tienong, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and senior officials from Taiwan
attended a ceremony.
"The rules and procedures of the ceremony have changed at times
since the rule of Liu Bang, the first emperor of the Western Han
Dynasty (206 BC-AD 25), but the essence of the ceremony has formed
an unchanged cultural phenomenon in China," said Liu Xubing, deputy
director of the Qufu municipal tourism department.
A grand ceremony and an international academic forum on the role
of Confucian theories in the contemporary world, particularly in
the building of a harmonious Chinese society and world were staged
yesterday in the ancestral hall of the Confucian family in Quzhou,
southeast China's Zhejiang Province.
Attended by around 200 Confucian scholars and amateur
researchers of Confucian classics from across China and six foreign
countries -- Poland, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia and the
US -- as well as at least 1,500 local citizens, the two events
brought the fourth Confucius Culture Festival that got underway on
September 8 to its climax. The Zhejiang event also drew significant
public interest to the picturesque city of Quzhou.
Little known to most Chinese today, the city of Quzhou since
early 12th century has been the home to about
30,000 descendants of Confucius. It's the second largest
Confucian community after Qufu.
Quzhou is also home to the Confucian ancestral hall for the
southern branch of the family, the only other one of its kind in
the world along with the ancestral hall in Qufu, according to Liu
Shifan, vice director of the China Confucius Foundation.
In 1128, Kong Duanyou, an officially recognized direct
descendant of the 48th generation of the Confucian family, moved
most of his family members, along with Southern Song Dynasty
(1127-1279) Emperor Gaozong (Zhao Gou), from Qufu while
fleeing the invading Kin army. They traveled south and resettled in
Quzhou.
Since that time Quzhou has served as the second largest center
for studying, interpreting and spreading Confucian concepts in
south China, said Kong Xiangkai, himself a descendant of the 75th
generation in Quzhou.
A research center on the development of Confucian theories and
their modern significance in south China was opened yesterday in
the city.
(China Daily September 29, 2006)