Kong Family Mansion

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Temple and Cemetery of Confucius and the Kong Family Mansion in Qufu
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List
Location	China
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, iv, vi
Reference	704
UNESCO region	Asia-Pacific
Inscription history
Inscription	1994 (18th Session)

Kong Family Mansion
"Kong Family Mansion" in Chinese characters
Chinese	孔府
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Kǒng fǔ IPA [kʰʊ̀ŋ fù] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Húng Fú Jyutping Hung2 Fu2 Southern Min Tâi-lô Khóng Hú

Coordinates: 35°36′42″N 116°58′30″E / 35.61167°N 116.97500°E / 35.61167; 116.97500

The Kong Family Mansion (Chinese: 孔府; pinyin: Kǒng fǔ) was the historical residence of the direct descendants of Confucius in the City of Qufu, the hometown of Confucius in Shandong Province, China. The extant structures mainly date from the Ming and Qing dynasties. From the mansion, the family tended to the Confucian sites in Qufu and also governed the largest private rural estate in China. The Kong family was in charge of conducting elaborate religious ceremonies on occasions such as plantings, harvests, honoring the dead, and birthdays. Today, the mansion is a museum and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Temple and Cemetery of Confucius and the Kong Family Mansion in Qufu".

The mansion is located immediately to the east of the Temple of Confucius to which it had been formerly connected. The layout of the mansion is traditionally Chinese and separates official spaces in the style of a Yamen in the front of the complex from the residential quarters in the rear. Besides the yamen and the inner quarters, the complex also contains an eastern and a western study as well as a back garden. Within this overall arrangement, the spatial distribution of the buildings according to the seniority, gender, and status of their inhabitants reflects the Confucian principle of order and hierarchy: The most senior descendant of Confucius took up residence in the central of the three main buildings; his younger brother occupied the Yi Gun hall to the east. The eastern study was used by the Duke of Yansheng to meet official guests and worship his ancestors. The western study was used by the family for study, meals, and entertaining friends. In its present layout, the mansion comprises 152 buildings with 480 rooms, which cover an area of 12,470 square metres (134,200 sq ft). Its tallest structure is the 4-story refuge tower (Chinese: ; pinyin: ) that was designed as a shelter during an attack but was never used. The mansion houses an archive with about 60,000 documents related to the life in the mansion over a period of 400 years during the Ming and Qing dynasties.