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A Chinese Biographical Dictionary
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of Heaven down to the meanest student, the supremacy of his principles is fully and freely admitted. He may indeed be pronounced the Divinest of men." Various titles have at various times been posthumously bestowed upon Confucius. The chief of these are 宜聖尼父 (A.D. 640), 太師 (666), 文宜王 (739), 大成至聖 (1308), and 至聖先師孔子 (1530). In A.D. 1238, through the influenoe of Yeh-lü Ch'u-ts'ai, the title of 衍聖公 was conferred upon the representative of the family in direct male line. The leading disciples of Confucius were Yen Hui, Tsêng Ts'an, Tsai Yü, Tuan-mu Tz'ŭ, and Chung Yu.

1044 K'ung Fang-shu 孔防叔. Son of K'ung Ch'i, and great grandfather of Confucius. In order to escape the enmity of the descendants of Hua Tu (see K'ung Ch'i), he fled to and settled in the State of Lu, where he became Magistrate of Fang. Hence his name. His tablet stands in the Confucian Temple among ancestors glorified as sages.

1045 K'ung Fu 孔鲋 (T. 子魚). Died B.C. ? 210. A descendant of Confucius in the ninth degree. At the time of the Burning of the Books (see Li Ssŭ), he is said to have preserved copies of the chief works of the Canon by secreting them in his house, whence they were eventually recovered. He is the reputed author of a collection of memoirs referring to Confucius and his grandson K'ung Chi, and also of the vocabulary entitled 小爾雅.

1046 K'ung Jung 孔融 (T. 文舉). Died A.D. 208, A descendant of Confucius in the 20th degree, and a most precocious child. At ten years of age he went with his father to Lo-yang, where Li Ying was at the height of his reputation. Unable, from the press of visitors, to gain admission, he told the doorkeeper to inform Li Ying that he was a connection, and thus succeeded in getting in. When Li Ying asked him what the connection was, he replied, "My ancestor Confucius and your ancestor Lao Tzŭ were friends

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