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The Confucius family tree

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The fifth update of the Confucius family tree has recently ended in east China’s Shandong Province, putting the revered Chinese philosopher’s descendants at more than 2 million.

The latest revision took 10 years to complete. It gives the most complete and systematic record of Confucius genealogy, said Kong Deyong, a 77th-generation descendant and founder of the Confucius Genealogy Compilation Committee. “The previous revision in 1937 included 600,000 members. Since the new revision started in 1998, we have collected data from more than 1.3 million new people. Another 11,000 members registered after we stopped soliciting for possible descendants. It took time to confirm whether their identities conform to the Confucius genealogy”, Kong said.

The new list, which includes overseas and female descendants for the first time, is expected to be published sometime around Confucius’ 2560th birthday which falls on the 28th September 2009. Confucius’ family tree recorded 83 generations of his offspring. The newest descendent is a little girl in Liaoning Province.

Confucius, born in 551 B.C. in Shandong, was a great teacher and thinker whose theories held sway as orthodox ideology in China for more than 2,000 years. His teachings, which advocate peace and social harmony, have enjoyed a renaissance in China in recent years.

May 2009