Day 265 – Qu Fu – Confucius’ HomeThe

Today, Shandong University sponsored a trip to Qu Fu, the home of Confucius.  We met at the south gate of our Campus at 8 a.m. and rode the bus for two and a half hours to get there.  It went by pretty fast because we were having some good conversations.  The Clarke’s and the Pace’s came, along with four of the single teachers that live on our campus. 

When we arrived at 10:30, we met our guide for the day.  We took a short golf cart ride to the Temple area.  It is a pretty large area that has lots of trees and they are almost all cypress trees (aka cedar).  They like the cypress tree and some of them have been growing there for over 900 years.  They are propped up by metal and cement poles, but they are still growing.  Some are dead, but they still have them there propped up.  It was beautiful inside there. 

The cypress (cedar) trees that are a part of the outer court yard surrounding the temple area of Qu Fu. 

The three gates that lead into the next courtyard.  The middle one was for the emperor.  That's the one we went through. 

There are several courtyard areas before you get to the temple built for Confucius.

This panel had ancient poetry written on it, but it was destroyed during the cultural revolution.  The dark patch is where they repaired it at.  There are several of these in the temple area, dedicated to different ancient rulers.  Some were damaged and others were left alone.  

This tree is called the dragon tree.  Because of the way it grew the shape of a dragon can be seen in it.  The tree is starting to fall apart and has been repaired with cement many times and it is held up by poles.  A tree near it was called the phoenix tree, but it is dead.  They still have the tree sitting next to it because the dragon and the phoenix are together in Chinese culture.

This tree is over 900 years old.  Still looks in pretty good shape.

This tree is the "scholar" tree.  Confucius would sit beneath a tree like this to teach his students. 

The men are graduating from the Confucius school.  Our guide told us they were all Koreans.

We had lunch at a restaurant close to the area, and after lunch, we went to Confucius’ residence.  He was a teacher and didn’t make a lot of money in his lifetime, but the place has been built onto in each succeeding generation and it quite impressive there. 

This is part of the home that was built for Confucius progeny.  He himself, lived in a humble hut without much of anything.  He was a teacher, who at the time had little notice from anyone.  A few noble families sent their children to him for an education.  It was many years later that his sayings and wisdom became known and then they started building this monument to him.

This room was used to smoke a hooka type machine.

This rock was a sign of good fortune for the home.  It has wrinkles as we do for a human quality.  It has holes to let the rain and the water through.  It is also tall and slim to be noticed.

This narrow passage way was for servants to bring what ever the family needed to the house.

These trees are propped and supported.  I don't remember how old they said they were, but I think it was several hundred years.

So you can see the limbs better of this tree.  Fascinating!

Going through the doorway to another area.

Here is a flowering pomegranate tree.  David showed him a photo of our family because with the many children and grandchildren we have, we are likened to a pomegranate fruit - many seeds together in one fruit.

This three grows on one edge of this arbor and covers most of it, about 20 feet long.  Nice and cool in the shade.

After the residence, we made our way to the burial place.  This is a large area that has lots of trees and lots of headstones.  The only ones who can be buried in this place are direct descendants of Confucius.  The more important ones will have monuments and headstones.  The less important ones have only a mound of dirt to say they are buried there.  We were able to see this rather large area (over 60 hectares) by way of a golf cart.

This is the graveyard that only descendants of Confucius can be buried in.  The more important relatives have a gravestone.  The less important ones just have a mound of dirt.  There are about 100,000 of Confucius descendants located in about 60 hectares.

You were also important if you had animal statues around your tomb.

Must have been a "big shot" here!

This is the monument at Confucius' grave.

We got back to the starting off point at 5 p.m. and then had a long drive back to Jinan.  While we were headed back on the expressway, some woman decided that she needed to take an exit that she almost passed, so she stopped and then started to make her way to turn around!  Right there from the far left lane over to the exit that she had just passed.  We had to slam on the breaks to avoid an accident, but she didn’t care, she needed to get to that exit that she had just passed.  She did make it to the exit without being hit, but I don’t know how she did!  Chinese drivers can be CRAZY!

With the Clarke’s and the Pace’s, we decided to go get dinner at Pizza Hut, so we walked down there after the bus dropped us off and had a good meal.  Then we walked home while they went to the bus stop.  We are tired now.