Visit to Qufu, 4 to 6 April 2015
We decided to visit Qufu, the home town of
Confucius during the Tomb Sweeping Day long-weekend. A student friend, Liu Fang Qiang (Oliver) accompanied us.
Qufu is about 300 km inland from Qingdao, and spring
was more in evidence here - blossoms in full bloom and green tinges on the trees.
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| Our bus went from Huangdao down the coast to Rizhao, and then almost due West to Qufu. Excellent highways. The trip took 4.5 hours. |
The old part of Qufu is about one square
kilometre and is encircled by a wall. It
is obviously a tourist town, with lots of trishaws (battery-powered these days!)
and horse drawn carriages. Many of the
facades of buildings have been done in ancient style. It all makes for quite an attractive
town.
| This shows the outline of the wall enclosing Qufu Old City. the green patches inside the wall are the Confucius Temple and mansion. The Confucius Forest / Cemetery is about 1 km north of the Old City. |
Confucius
Confucius (Kong Zi in Chinese, 551 – 479 BC) was an official
of the Qi Kingdom. At the age of 63, instead of graceful retirement he turned
to teaching. He believed that everyone,
not just the nobility, had the right to knowledge and is revered in China for
being the first teacher to take on a large number of students from various
walks of life.
Confucius believed that social harmony would be achieved
if each individual in 5 basic relationships carried out their proper roles:
father/son; ruler/subject; husband/wife; elder brother/younger brother;
friend/friend (eg a subject served his ruler respectfully, while a ruler
provided for his subject).
His students/disciples compiled 497 of his teachings
into a book called The Analects. Examples of his teachings are:
Our
greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do.
Forget
injuries, never forget kindnesses.
Be
not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.
Before
you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.
Everything
has its beauty but not everyone sees it.
Ignorance
is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star.
It
does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
Respect
yourself and others will respect you.
Study
the past if you would define the future.
His most famous teaching was ‘Treat others as you want them to treat you’. He was the first known exponent, 2,500 years
ago, of what became known in the West as the 'Golden Rule'.
The fame of his teachings spread. Two hundred years after his death the Han
Emperor made Confucianism the state ideology, and it has underpinned Chinese
society ever since. He finally achieved
the recognition that had eluded him during his lifetime! The status of the Kong family, his
descendants, was elevated and they became very well off.
He is often referred to in the West as ‘the sage
Confucius’.
Why is this descriptor used specifically for Confucius? Why isn't it also commonly used to
describe other ‘wise men’ who had their own blueprints for better societies such as Jesus, or Gautama, or Muhammad, or Marx?
There are three main Confucius sites in Qufu: the
Confucius Temple (where he taught), the Confucius Mansions (where he lived),
and the Confucius Forest (where he is buried).
The Temple of Confucius (Chinese: 孔庙; pinyin: Kǒng Miào) and the Mansions are big - they occupy about 20% of the Old City - while the
Forest/Cemetery is a is huge (about 200 hectares) and has over 40,000 graves, all Kongs.
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| Vera & me outside the main gate of the massive Confucius Temple. |
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| The center-piece of the Confucius Temple is Dacheng Hall (54mx34mx32m). |
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| A closer look at the front of Dacheng Hall. Intricately carved stone pillars. |
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| The Confucius Temple was crowded when we were there. Here is a girl making an offering to The Master, and no doubt wishing for good grades. |
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| The Apricot Pavilion, where Confucius is said to have taught. |
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| There are many stone stele (plural: stelae) stone tablets mounted on bixi, a tortoise-like mythical animal, many with cute faces. The biggest one weighs 6 tonnes! |
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| Crowds around Confucius' grave in the Kong Forest / Cemetery. |
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| Kong Xiang Hu ('Auspicious tiger' Kong), 76th generation of Confucius ancestors, writing a poem for us at the Confucius Temple. It now hangs in pride-of-place in our living room. |
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| We travelled around the Old City by trishaw - they are battery-powered these days, the pedals are for emergencies only. |
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| Another common way to get around Qufu is by horse-drawn carriage. |
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| Our student friend Oliver stayed at the Youth Hostel, where we stayed 5 years ago (but this time all the private rooms were booked, so we stayed in a hotel nearby). Last time we befriended the manager, Lu Hui, but he was away. This time we met his lovely wife Han Fang. |
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| Our hotel had a big display in the foyer with a statue of Confucius and some of his quotes as a back-drop. |
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| Oliver looking at the moat which protects the wall surrounding the Old City. |
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| One of the main gates of the wall around the Old City. Five years ago we were told of plans to let visitors walk along the top of the wall, but unfortunately that hasn't happened yet. |
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| Vera and Oliver buying a wrap for lunch. Delicious. |
We had a problem on the return journey. We expected to be let off at the Huangdao Long Distance Bus Station near our campus, but instead the bus dropped us off on the outskirts of Huangdao, about 30 km from the city. Its final destination was Qingdao City, another 70 km away, and it was just skirting the district of Huangdao but they didn't explain that when we bought the tickets in Qufu!
We had to walk 1.5 km and finally found a local bus which took us into Huangdao City, and then another bus to the campus. Luckily Oliver was with us, and could explain what was going on!
Anyway, all's well that ends well; we made it back in one piece. The weekend in Qufu was a good break from our normal routine on campus.
Best wishes, and keep smiling.
Alex & Vera Olah
English Teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao
www.upc.edu.cn
Sunday, 12 April 2015
