Cemetery Of Confucius

Cemetery of Confucius (Kong Lin called in Chinese) is located in the north gate of Qufu (about 1 km north of Qufu). It is the largest and the longest time-consuming family cemetery in the world.

Confucius was died in April 479 BC and was buried in the north of Lu City (now called Qufu) where his descendants were also buried after their deaths. More than 1,000 trees were planted since the first tree planted by Zigong – one of Confucius’ favorite pupils.

Cemetery of Confucius was repaired and rebuilt 13 times by the emperors of many Chinese dynasties sine Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) and finally shaped its scale of two square kilometers with a protection wall of 5.6 kilometers in length, more than three meters in height and one meter in thickness.

Guomoruo (1892-1978), one of the most famous Chinese modern writers praised:” The Cemetery of Confucius is one of the best nature museums as well as the annals of Confucius’ family.”

Nowadays, the Cemetery of Confucius has played an important role for analyzing the development of Chinese ancient politics, economy and culture as well as the changes of Chinese funeral customs.