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Almost all people with the surname 孔 (Kong) can trace their lineage back to Confucius along the paternal line (on paper, if not on DNA), and it's often said that they constitute the world's biggest family tree, at an estimated one and a half million living individuals. However, much to the surprise and embarrassment of many, there is no agreement on the YDNA haplogroup of Confucius based on testings on modern descendants.
Famous Historical Figures
- 子思, Confucius' grandson
- 孔安國 of early Han
- 孔融 of late Han
- 孔穎達 of the Tang
- 孔尚任 of the Qing
- 孔祥熙 of the Republic of China
- 孔德成, the last Duke of Yansheng
Generation Names
Like many other Chinese families, the Kong family adopted for all their descendants a naming scheme: people of the same generation, no matter how distant, share part of their given name in common.
From the 56th generation (with Confucius counted as the 1st) to 105th generation, the designated names are:
- 56G 希言公彥承 弘[%E5%AE%8F]聞貞尚胤[%E8%A1%8D]
- 66G 興毓傳繼廣 昭憲慶繁祥
- 76G 令德維垂佑 欽紹念顯揚
- 86G 建道敦安定 懋修肇彝常
- 96G 裕文焕景瑞 永錫世續昌
(The ones in brackets are replacements due to taboo with two Qing Emperors: 弘 for Qianlong, and 胤 for Yongzheng.)
In the 20th century, the generations of 繁祥令德 are most common. For example,
- 孔祥熙 (75G) official in the Republic era
- 孔令輝 (76G) table tennis world champion
- 孔慶東 (73G) writer
- 孔繁森 (74G)
From around the 1700s, the descendants of Mencius (孟) and Zengzi (曾) also use the same generation names as the Kongs, though their modern descendants don't follow the practice as strictly as the Kongs do. For example,
- 曾國藩 (傳 70G) official in late Qing
- 曾紀澤 (繼 71G) diplomat in late Qing
- 曾昭掄 (73G) chemist
- 曾慶紅 (75G) former Vice President of PRC
- 孟廣祿 (70G) Peking opera singer
- 孟廣美 (70G) actress
The difference in generational numbers from that of the Kong is to reflect the fact that Zengzi was a disciple of Confucius, and Mencius a disciple of Zengzi's disciple Zisi. See the project Four Sages of China for comparison.
20 streams and 60 houses
By the Ming dynasty, the family had grown so large that it was divided into 57 houses 戶 or lineages (later adjusted to 60 houses).
Marriage with families of zhuangyuan
In the Qing dynasty, it became customary for the main line of descent, holder of the title Duke of Yansheng, to marry with the family of a zhuangyuan (jinshi optimus, or first-ranking jinshi) in the triennial civil service examination.
- 71G Kong Zhaohuan 孔昭煥, married a granddaughter of 陳世倌 (秉之 蓮宇)
- 72G 孔憲培 (養元 篤齋), married a daughter of Yu Minzhong 于敏中 (jinshi optimus of 1737)
- 73G Kong Qingrong 孔慶鎔, married a daughter of Bi Yuan 畢沅 (jinshi optimus of 1760)
- 74G 孔繁灝 (文淵 伯海), married a granddaughter of Bi Yuan 畢沅 (jinshi optimus of 1760)
- 75G 孔祥珂 (覲堂), married a granddaughter of Peng Yunzhang 彭蘊章, who was a great grandson of 彭啟豐 (翰文) (jinshi optimus of 1727), who in turn was a grandson of Peng Dingqiu 彭定求 (jinshi optimus of 1676)
- 76G K‘ung Ling-i 孔令貽, Duke of Confucius, married a daughter of 孫毓汶 (萊山) (jinshi secondus of 1856)
- 77G Kung Te-cheng 孔德成, married a great granddaughter of Sun Jianai 孫家鼐 (jinshi optimus of 1859)