Books and Book Chapters by University of Dayton Faculty
The Kongs of Qufu: The Descendants of Confucius in Late Imperial China
Files
Description
The city of Qufu, in north China’s Shandong Province, is famous as the hometown of Kong Qiu (551–479 BCE)—known as Confucius in English and as Kongzi or Kong Fuzi in Chinese. In The Kongs of Qufu, Christopher Agnew chronicles the history of the sage’s direct descendants from the inception of the hereditary title Duke for Fulfilling the Sage in 1055 CE through its dissolution in 1935, after the fall of China’s dynastic system in 1911.
Drawing on archival materials, Agnew reveals how a kinship group used genealogical privilege to shape Chinese social and economic history. The Kongs’ power under a hereditary dukedom enabled them to oversee agricultural labor, dominate rural markets, and profit from commercial enterprises.
The Kongs of Qufu demonstrates that the ducal institution and Confucian ritual were both a means to reproduce existing social hierarchies and a potential site of conflict and subversion.
ISBN
9780295745923
Publication Date
2019
Publisher
University of Washington Press
Recommended Citation
Agnew, Christopher, "The Kongs of Qufu: The Descendants of Confucius in Late Imperial China" (2019). Books and Book Chapters by University of Dayton Faculty. 154.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/books/154
Comments
The publisher has permitted the University of Dayton to provide one chapter of this volume. Permission documentation is on file.
Citation: Agnew, Christopher S. 2019. The Kongs of Qufu : The Descendants of Confucius in Late Imperial China. University of Washington Press.