Kong Family Mansion also called the Holly Mansion was the place
where Confucius’ descendants lived in. In Chinese history,
Confucius’ descendants were called “Yanshenggong”.
Confucius’ descendants strictly kept their family rules and
rituals. By the influence of Confucian rituals, the buildings were
designed with the rules and rituals of Confucian patriarchal system
and ethics. Kong Family Mansion was designed exactly as Chinese
traditions of “the hall in front, the living room in back.”. The
front hall was divided into three individual spaces which were “Guanya” – the place for work, “Dongxue” – the place for reception and “Xixue” – the place for entertainments. The living rooms were designed
for daily lives.
The scale of Kong Family Mansion is huge. It is almost as large as
the mansions of the emperors in Ming Dynasty (1364-1683) and Qing
Dynasty (1644-1911).
There were more than 170 buildings with more than 560 rooms at the
very beginning but remained 152 buildings with 480 rooms now some
of these buildings were damaged and destroyed in the history. Part
of these buildings were established in Ming dynasty, most of them
were built in Qing dynasty. The total square measure of Preserved
Kong Family Mansion reached to more than 12,740 square meters.
Lots of precious historical relics were preserved in Kong Family
Mansion. Calligraphies of the emperors, royal poetries, books,
royal instruments … almost everything were bestowed to Confucius
and his descendants by the emperors of past dynasties in order to
show their honors to them. And Confucius’ descendants had got into
the habit of collecting the ancient relics to enrich the relics
collection.
Up till now, the Kong Family Mansion still kept its original
furnishings in late Qing dynasty and early ROC (Republic of China,
1912-1949).
