For Confucius and His Descendants, a Cultural Comeback
2016-12-14 05:29

 

XI’AN, China — Among the qualifications Kong Dexin had to direct and choreograph a flashy new dance-drama about the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, one in particular stood out.According to Ms. Kong, 34, she is a 77th-generation descendant of that revered sage, known in Chinese as Kongzi, or Master Kong.“Growing up, it was something we talked about casually in my family,” Ms. Kong said in an interview before a recent performance of “Confucius” in this former dynastic capital. (The production will make its American debut in January at the David H. Koch Theater in New York.) “The way my grandfather talked about him, Confucius felt more like a great-grandfather than a very distant relative.”“Very distant” is an understatement. More than 2,500 years separate Ms. Kong, a soft-spoken woman who wears pearl earrings and carries a Louis Vuitton bag, from her ancestor, who was born around 551 B.C.Xu Ning, vice president of the state-backed China National Opera and Dance Drama Theater, which commissioned the work, said that when Ms. Kong proposed the idea, “all of us — including the officials at the Ministry of Culture — were a little perplexed.” He added, “It runs counter to the Chinese view of Confucius as very serious and very staid.”
 
Fast-forward four years to a balmy evening last month and there was Confucius: The wide sleeves on his white-and-gray scholar’s robe billowing as the bearded sage (portrayed by the dancer Hu Yang) whirled, cartwheeled and leapt across the stage before a backdrop of massive bamboo strips inscribed with ancient Chinese characters. The dramatic prerecorded music left no doubt as to the adulatory nature of the show.

 

Since its premiere in Beijing in 2013, the 90-minute show has become a cultural calling card for China as the country seeks to bolster its efforts to project soft power abroad. Having already toured in Europe, the production will visit the Kennedy Center in Washington after coming to New York.

"Right now we are just looking to establish a cultural brand first and then hopefully make money later," said Wang Xiuqin, deputy director of the cultural exchange division at the state-owned China Arts and Entertainment Group, which is renting the American venues.

When it comes to propagating the Chinese cultural brand, there is perhaps no better ambassador than Confucius.

Over the centuries, the philosopher has become one of the most important and recognizable symbols of traditional Chinese culture. Across East Asia, his teachings about harmony, benevolence and righteousness have influenced everything from the makeup of political institutions to the dynamics of everyday relationships.

In recent years, his stock has risen even higher as China's ruling Communist Party has sought to promote traditional Chinese values as a counterbalance to the influence of Western liberal ideas.

Hundreds of Confucius Institutes have been set up on university campuses worldwide to spread Chinese language and culture. In his speeches, President Xi Jinping of China often quotes from Confucius alongside more recent figures, like Mao Zedong.

"Politicians today often trot out Confucian thought to serve their own purposes," Ms. Kong said.

But for Ms. Kong and her vast extended family, the association has gone both ways. With the party's growing embrace of traditional philosophy, there has come a renewed sense of kinship and pride among Confucius's sprawling network of descendants - a lineage that has been certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's longest family tree.

In 2009, the Confucius Genealogy Compilation Committee released the fifth edition of the Kong family tree. The updated genealogy, which spans 80 volumes and weighs more than half a ton, covers 83 generations and two million descendants.

"The Kong family has the longest and most complete family tree," said Richard Kong, 53, a 78th-generation descendant whose father led the project to update the genealogy. "Our mission is to carry on this heritage."

Just how did a gentle scholar who is said to have had only three children come to preside over the world's largest documented family tree? Certainly Confucius was no match for other historical figures like Genghis Khan, who is believed to have sired hundreds of children.

The answer, historians say, has to do with the original Confucius genealogy, which was recorded by hand and printed in A.D. 1080 during the Northern Song dynasty.

"There are a lot of groups that trace their origins," said Christopher S. Agnew, associate professor at the University of Dayton in Ohio and an expert in the history of Confucius's descendants. "But there are few that can actually point to genealogical records from the Song that are then kept up and recompiled pretty continuously up to the present.

"The Kong family's significance has always waxed and waned depending on their relationship to the state," he added. "In both dynastic times and today, that relationship has hinged on the extent to which the state sees Confucius and Confucius's thoughts as relevant to its agenda."

During the Northern Song dynasty, he said, being Kong came with "a lot of cachet." For centuries in imperial China, the emperor appointed a Duke of Yansheng, a title given to direct descendants of the philosopher. Members of the Kong lineage were also entitled to a slate of benefits, like land and special tax advantages. This also led to the proliferation of "fake Kongs," people who fabricated lineage to gain access to the benefits that came with being part of the family.

The Kong family maintained its status for centuries. But things began to change with the decline of the Qing dynasty in the early 20th century. As one of the country's largest landowners, the family was denounced by pro-modernization voices, and later, the Communists, as remnants of the feudal order. Going into the Cultural Revolution in 1966, it was no longer so desirable to be a Kong.

"When we were younger, my father hid our family background from us," said Mr. Kong, the 78th-generation descendant. "When I later found out that we were related to Confucius, I was a little ashamed." He added, "I thought, 'Why do I come from this family?'"

But by the time China embarked on its economic reform program in the 1980s, the stigma of being a Kong had mostly faded.

"I remember when we were studying the 'Analects' in school and my classmates said to me, 'You don't even need to memorize this, it's in your blood,'" said Ms. Kong, the choreographer, referring to the collection of sayings and ideas commonly attributed to Confucius.

With Confucius and his teachings back in good standing, the Kong family network has once again begun to flourish. Every year, descendants honor their famed forbear by gathering in Qufu, Confucius's hometown in eastern Shandong Province, and in Confucius temples across China for the annual tomb-sweeping festival, as well as Confucius's birthday.

Last month, Mr. Kong toured the Confucius Family Mansion in Qufu with a group of fellow descendants from the Philippines who were visiting for the first time.

"We all see each other as family," Mr. Kong said. "This tree may have a lot of branches, but we all come from the same roots.''