In 1949 she married Zhang Hanfu (1905 – 1972), who was also a senior diplomat. Popularly worn by scholars, especially those who have yet to earn the title of Juren at the imperial examination. The Great Hall (Chinese: 大堂; pinyin: Dà Táng) was the site of the duke’s official business and the place for the proclamation of imperial edicts. The administration of the Kong family’s official functions and businesses was structured into departments similar to the six ministries of the imperial government: Department of Rites (ancestor worship), Department of Seals (jurisdiction and edicts), Music, Letters, and Archives, Rent Collection and Sacrificial Fields. Located to the north of the Central Courtyard, the Gate of Double Glory (Chinese: 重光門; pinyin: Chóngguāng Mén) was erected in 1503 and opened only for ceremonial purposes, visits by the emperor, or the arrival of imperial edicts. It is also known as the “Yi Gate” (Chinese: 儀門; pinyin: Yí Mén) or “Sai Gate” (Chinese: 塞門; pinyin: Sāi Mén). Its tallest structure is the four-story refuge tower (Chinese: 避難樓; pinyin: Bìnán Lóu) that was designed as a shelter during an attack but was never used. The Kong Family Mansion (Chinese: 孔府; pinyin: Kǒng fǔ) was the historical residence of the direct descendants of Confucius in the City of Qufu, the hometown of Confucius in Shandong Province, traditional hanfu China.
In 1503, during the reign of the Hongzhi Emperor, the complex was expanded into three rows of buildings with 560 rooms and – like the neighboring Confucius Temple – nine courtyards. Nowadays, Hanfu is usually only worn by hobbyists or participants in cultural exercises, but some religious figures, like Taoists and Buddhist monks, wear the garments every day. Many young people wear Hanfu as their everyday clothing, going to work and shopping in them. This form of dress is often worn by the nobility or the upper-class as they are often expensive pieces of clothing, usually made of silks and damasks. Colorful turbans called Masar are the national headwear costume in Oman, and also are common in some regions in south of Yemen and Hadhramaut. It is also a common part of a woman’s formal evening gowns or wedding dresses. Despite its decline in common use, white qipao the hebao was still popular in some rural areas and ethnic minority areas in present-day China allowing the Chinese folk art to be transmitted to modern times. Despite earlier alliance, Chiang Kai-shek would soon be an enemy of the CCP in the Chinese Civil War following the Shanghai Massacre as he turned into a staunch anti-communist.
Despite these later renovations, the Kong Family Mansion remains the best-preserved Ming-era residential complex of its size. In 1377, qipao chinese traditional dress the mansion was relocated and rebuilt under orders of the first emperor of the Ming dynasty. The mansion houses an archive with about 60,000 documents related to the life in the mansion over a period of 400 years during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Sogdians and their descendants, mostly from the merchant class, who lived in China during this period also wore a form of knee-length, yuanling-style kaftan that retained their own ethnic characteristics but also showed some influences from East Asia, including Chinese and early Turkic influences. Within this overall arrangement, the spatial distribution of the buildings according to the seniority, gender, and status of their inhabitants reflects the Confucian principle of order and hierarchy: The most senior descendant of Confucius took up residence in the central of the three main buildings; his younger brother occupied the Yi Gun hall to the east.
The central courtyard is flanked to the east and west by former administrative office buildings. In its present layout, the mansion comprises 152 buildings with 480 rooms, which cover an area of 12,470 square metres (134,200 sq ft). The first mansion for the Kong family of the Duke Yansheng was built in 1038 during the Song dynasty. Song dynasty-style fashion, including jiaolingyouren jackets, continued to be worn by both Han Chinese and non-elite Khitan women in the Liao dynasty; these jackets were waist-length. Silk, the quintessential fabric of the Song Dynasty, exhibited a wide variety in terms of texture, weaving technique, and purpose. Today, the mansion is a museum and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Temple and Cemetery of Confucius and the Kong Family Mansion in Qufu”. Kong Decheng fled to Chongqing because of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. He did not return to Qufu but moved on to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War. From the mansion, the family tended to the Confucian sites in Qufu and also governed the largest private rural estate in China.
