Pailou

Confucius Cemetery, Qufu

The Kong family cemetery (Kong Lin) is located about two miles north of the Kong family temple and mansion (previous pages). The five-arched pailou, dating from the Ming dynasty, marks the start of a 1266m-long (.78 miles) processional approach. At its end, the walled cemetery proper occupies 500 square acres of forest (lin), with a perimeter of 7.5 km (4.6 miles).

Over 100,000 descendents of Confucius were buried here, beginning in the Eastern Zhou dynasty and ending in the early 20th century. Most of these burials were commoners; it is a very large extended clan, and only Confucius' direct line was ennobled.