Explore the ancient treasures of the Confucius Mansion and inherit the millennium culture of rites and music!

Since ancient times, China has been known as the 'Land of Etiquette', where sages and wise predecessors established rites and music, cultivated literature and restrained military affairs, believing that proper attire and governance would lead to great harmony across the land. The ancients stored rites in objects and clothing to honor etiquette, integrating family and state ethics into their attire and utensils. Each generation's attire and ritual utensils reflect the system of laws and regulations of the time; they are a part of the history of Chinese civilization, converging into a chapter of rites and music. Confucius, the founder of Confucianism and the great integrator of pre-Qin rites and music, spent his life pursuing the Zhou rites. He learned the Shao music in Qi, studied the qin with Master Xiang, inquired about rites from Lao Dan, and taught his disciples through poetry, books, rites, and music. After Confucius passed away, he was buried north of Lu City, where his disciples held annual sacrifices, preserving the master's attire, qin, and books in the temple. The Ming Dynasty's colored painting 'The Holy Relics of Confucius' is the earliest existing serial colored painting in China with a complete storyline. It depicts Confucius teaching his son, Kong Li, about rites and poetry in the Poem and Rites Hall, while his sixty-fourth generation descendant, Kong Shangren, lectured Emperor Kangxi there. The Confucius Museum, as a leading collector of sacrificial utensils and attire for worshipping Confucius, possesses over a thousand sacrificial items from the pre-Qin period to the Republic of China, and several thousand pieces of clothing from the Ming and Qing dynasties' extended holy family.