Taiwan Today

The names of more than 900 Taiwan residents have been added to the latest revision of Confucius’ family tree recently unveiled in a ceremony held in the ancient philosopher’s birthplace of Qufu City in the mainland Chinese province of Shandong. It marks the first time that the names of descendants of Confucius in Taiwan have been included in the family tree, according to Kong Dewei, head of the editorial office of the association tasked with revising the family tree. Kong said that the first descendants of Confucius to arrive on the island of Taiwan can be traced back to the reign of Ching Dynasty Emperor Jiaqing who ruled between 1796 and 1820. Their names had not been entered in previous editions of the family tree. During the unveiling ceremony held at the Confucian Temple in Qufu Sept. 24, Kong Deyong, a 77th-generation descendent of the revered philosopher, presented the family tree to Taiwan’s National Central Library, as well as the mainland’s National Library of China and the Qufu municipal government. The Confucius family tree is considered the oldest recorded in the world. The latest revision took nearly 10 years to complete. Large-scale revision of the family tree dates back to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) when the family agreed to update it with major changes every 60 years. However, due to wars and other historical factors, only four revisions have been completed, with the last one occurring in 1937. The newest version includes more than 2 million names in 80 books containing a total of some 43,000 pages and approximately 20 million Chinese characters. It weighs nearly 120 kilograms and cost around 10 million yuan (US$1.35 million) to complete, according to Kong Dewei. The new list has added more than 1.4 million names and includes minorities, overseas and female descendants of Confucius for the first time. It contains at least 14 minority ethnic groups in mainland China, 200,000 females, and nearly 50,000 overseas, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan residents, including those from the counties of Taoyuan and Pingtung, as well as other locations around the island. (SB)