New findings

The new edition highlights four important new discoveries about the descendants of Confucius.

The first discovery is that not all his descendants have the surname Kong.

During the field work on the new edition, 600 people named Qu from Heze of Shandong Province claimed they were descendants of Kong Yanling, a 59th generation descendant of Confucius. The compilers checked with the historical archives in Qufu and found that Kong Yanling once took refuge with his friend Qu Yaotian after a trade dispute. Qu had no son and in gratitude for his help, Kong Yanling let Qu adopt one of his sons. The boy's surname was changed to Qu and the Qu's of Heze are his descendants.

This genealogy of the Qu family shows that despite their surname, (Confucius’ surname was Kong) they are in fact descendants of the great sage.

This genealogy of the Qu family shows that despite their surname, (Confucius’ surname was Kong) they are in fact descendants of the great sage.

The second is that the ancestor of South Korea's Confucius descendants was sent there during the Yuan Dynasty.

A 1915 record in the Qufu Confucius Museum shows that Kong Shao, a 54th generation of Confucius, moved to Goryeo (present South Korea) as an official when a princess of the State of Lu married the King of Goryeo during the reign of Emperor Yuan Shun (1333-1368).

Another South Korean archive the Qufu Confucius Genealogy (South Korean Descendant Genealogy), published in 1996, confirmed this story and estimated that there are around 80,000 of the sage's descendants alive in South Korea today. Kong Dewei said that 30,000 of them are listed in the fifth genealogy, making up the largest group of overseas descendants of Confucius.

A copy of a genealogy that proves that a descendant of Confucius moved to Goryeo (present South Korea) during the reign of Yuan dynasty Emperor Shun (1333-1368).