Qualla: Cemetery of Confucius https://qualla.com/cemetery-of-confucius en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:38 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/7/4/cemetery-of-confucius-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Cemetery of Confucius https://qualla.com/cemetery-of-confucius Cemetery of Confucius: Introduction https://qualla.com/cemetery-of-confucius/ Photo credit Rolf Müller (User:Rolfmueller), CC BY-SA 3.0. Seventy-six generations. The Cemetery of Confucius in Qufu, Shandong Province, contains the unbroken burial record of a single family spanning more than two millennia -- from the philosopher himself, interred here around 479 BC, to descendants who lived into the twentieth century. No other family cemetery in the world has been in continuous use for so long. With more than 10,000 mature trees shading the graves, the 183-hectare grounds feel less like a cemetery and more like a forest that happens to contain the dead.

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Image: Rolf Müller (User:Rolfmueller) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/7/4/cemetery-of-confucius-wp/ww74-cemetery-of-confucius-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Cemetery of Confucius: The Expanding Wall https://qualla.com/cemetery-of-confucius/ Photo credit Zhangzhugang, CC BY-SA 4.0. By the second century AD, at least 50 of Confucius's descendants had already been buried alongside him. As the Kong clan grew across centuries, so did the cemetery. In 1331, construction began on an enclosing wall and gate. Over the following centuries, the site underwent 13 reno...

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Image: Zhangzhugang | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/7/4/cemetery-of-confucius-wp/ww74-cemetery-of-confucius-the-expanding-wall.mp3 0:06 2 full Cemetery of Confucius: Spirit Ways and Stone Guardians https://qualla.com/cemetery-of-confucius/ Photo credit User:Vmenkov, CC BY-SA 3.0. A grand avenue runs north from the walled city of Qufu for 1,266 meters, decorated with the Wan Gu Chang Chun memorial arch and lined with cypresses and pines, before arriving at the cemetery's southern gates. Inside, the burials are organized by era. Ming dynasty tombs cluster i...

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Image: User:Vmenkov | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/7/4/cemetery-of-confucius-wp/ww74-cemetery-of-confucius-spirit-ways-and-stone-guardians.mp3 0:06 3 full Cemetery of Confucius: Reverence and Desecration https://qualla.com/cemetery-of-confucius/ Photo credit User:Vmenkov, CC BY-SA 3.0. The cemetery's history is not one of unbroken reverence. During the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards targeted the site as a symbol of the feudal values Mao Zedong sought to destroy. The corpse of the 76th-generation Duke Yansheng (1872-1919), a late Qing official known for his col...

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Image: User:Vmenkov | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/7/4/cemetery-of-confucius-wp/ww74-cemetery-of-confucius-reverence-and-desecration.mp3 0:06 4 full Cemetery of Confucius: A Forest of Memory https://qualla.com/cemetery-of-confucius/ Photo credit Scott Edmunds, CC BY 2.0. Walking through the cemetery today, the overwhelming impression is of age and green silence. More than 10,000 mature trees -- cypresses, pines, and other species -- give the grounds a forest-like canopy. Stelae and tumuli emerge from the undergrowth, some well-maintained, others ...

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Image: Scott Edmunds | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/w/7/4/cemetery-of-confucius-wp/ww74-cemetery-of-confucius-a-forest-of-memory.mp3 0:06 5 full