The correct number of Kong family members is one to fifty characters. They are Xi, Yan, Gong, Yan, Cheng, Hong (Hong), Wen, Zhen, Shang, Yin (Yan), Xing, Yu, Chuan, Ji, Guang, Zhao, Xian, Qing, Fan, Xiang, Ling, De, Wei, Chui, You, Qin, Shao, Nian, Xian, Yang, Jian, Dao, Dun, An, Ding, Mao, Xiu, Zhao, Yi, Chang, Yu, Wen, Huan, Jing, Rui, Yong, Xi, Shi, Xu, Chang.
The development history of the Kong family hierarchy:
Before the Ming Dynasty, the descendants of the Kong family did not have a fixed generation. At that time, the number of people was still small, and each family was named very casually. From the forty-fifth generation onwards, attention has been paid to defining the seniority, but it is not strict yet. People of the same generation often use the same radical or the same character as the character for seniority.
In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang successively gave Kong's cross as his generation character. Starting from the fifty-sixth generation, people of the Kong family are not allowed to take random names. During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty (from the fifty-sixth to the sixty-fifth generation): Xi, Yan, Gong, Yan, Cheng, Hong, Wen, Zhen, Shang, Yin (later in the Qing Dynasty, Hong was changed to Hong to avoid imperial taboos) , Yin was changed to Yan).
The crosses were fixed on February 17, the fifth year of Qianlong’s reign in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1740) (from the sixty-sixth generation to the seventy-fifth generation): Xing, Yu, Chuan, Ji, Guang, Zhao, Xian, Qing, Fan, Xiang.
In the 19th year of Daoguang's reign in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1839), the cross was determined (from the 76th to the 85th generation): Ling, De, Wei, Chui, You, Qin, Shao, Nian, Xian, Yang.
In 1919, Kong Lingyi, the seventy-sixth generation grandson of Confucius and Yanshenggong, reported to the then Beiyang government for approval, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of China registered and renewed the Twenty-Twenty Generations: Jian, Dao, Dun, An, Ding, Mao, Xiu, Zhao, Yi, Chang, Yu, Wen, Huan, Jing, Rui, Yong, Xi, Shi, Xu, Chang determine the descendants of Confucius from the 86th to the 105th generation. Seniors.