孔 Kong Genealogy and 孔 Kong Family History Information

With almost 100% certainty, people with the surname 孔 (Kong) are all direct (patrilineal) descendants of Confucius, and they constitute perhaps the world's biggest family tree, at an estimated one and a half million living individuals.

Famous Ones

• 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 last Duke of Yansheng

Generation Names

Like many other Chinese surnames, 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:

• 希言公彦承 弘(宏)聞貞尚胤(衍)
• 興毓傳繼廣 昭憲慶繁祥
• 令德維垂佑 欽紹念顯揚
• 建道敦安定 懋修肇彝常
• 裕文焕景瑞 永錫世續昌

(The ones in parentheses are employed to avoid taboo with two Emperors of the Qing dynasty.)

As of 20th century, commonly occurring generation names are 繁祥令德. 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 Zengs' generational number is higher by two.)

Together with the 顏 Yan family (which reportedly does not follow the practice because Confucius' mother was from the Yan family, and it could not be ascertained which generation she was in), they comprise the Four Families of the Sages:

• 至聖 孔子 Confucius
• 復聖 顏子 Yan Hui
• 宗聖 曾子 Zengzi
• 述聖 子思 Zisi, Confucius' grandson
• 亞聖 孟子 Mencius