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Kong Te-cheng () (23 February 1920 – 28 October 2008) was a 77th generation descendant of Confucius in the main line of descent. He was the final person to be appointed Duke Yansheng and the first Sacrificial Official to Confucius. He helped formulate and was in charge of officiating the modern Confucius ceremony held annually in the Republic of China (Taiwan). In addition to Ceremonial Official, he held numerous posts in the Republic of China government, including member of the National Assembly from 1946 to 1991, President of the Examination Yuan from 1984 to 1993, and senior advisor to the President of the Republic of China from 1948 to 2000. He held professorships at National Taiwan University, Fu Jen Catholic University, and Soochow University.
At the age of 6, in Shandong he met University of Pennsylvania dean Emory Johnson, who invited him to attend the university.
In January 1938, Kong fled the Japanese invasion of Shandong to Hankou. The Japanese blew up his Sacred Mount Taishan residence. Premier H. H. Kong, also a descendant of Confucius, greeted Duke Kong Te-cheng as he arrived. TIME magazine addressed him by the title "Duke Kung", and referred to his residence as the "ducal seat".
In response to talk of Japanese offers to make him "ruler of China", Kong said: "I have never even been approached by the Japanese! I consider myself at the orders of the Chinese Government. I am a patriot, ready to take up arms and fight the Japanese as soon as I reach the age of military service—that is 18 years... my wife is expecting a child." He was a member of the National Assembly of the Republic of China from 1946 to 1991 and helped draft the 1947 Constitution of the Republic of China. From July 1956 to April 1964 he was Director of National Palace Museum in Taipei. Kong served as President of the Examination Yuan from 1984 to 1993. He was a senior adviser to the President of the Republic of China from 1948 to 2000.
Kong Lingyi had a total of two wives and two Concubinage. His first wife, Lady Sun (孫氏), was the fifth daughter of Sun Yuwen (孫毓汶, 1833–1899), an Imperial Envoy, and she was one year older than Kong. Lady Sun's grandfather, Sun Ruizhen (孫瑞珍, 1783–1858), was a scholar and official during the Guangxu Emperor reign. Kong and Lady Sun married in 1888, but she died of illness without issue in 1899, aged 28. Kong's first concubine, Lady Feng, similarly did not have any children, and she died in 1926. Kong's second wife, Tao Wenpu, (陶文譜, known as Lady Tao 陶氏), was the fifth daughter of Tao Shiyun (陶式鋆), Magistrate of Daming Prefecture, and Kong married her in 1905; compared with Lady Sun, though Tao family was rich at the time, it wasn't as prominent as Sun family. She bore Kong one son who died at the age of three year. As of 1914, one of Lady Tao's maids, named Wang Baocui, became the second concubine of Kong Lingyi; Wang was a daughter from a peasant from Zunhua County, Hebei, and she bore two daughters in 1913 and 1917. On 4 October 1919, Kong Lingyi went to Beijing after receiving news about the death of his father-in-law, Tao Shiyun. Soon afterwards, Kong was afflicted with a subcutaneous ulcer on his back. He died on 8 November 1919 at the Mansion of the Duke of Yansheng (衍聖公府) in Beijing. At the time of his father's death, Kong Te-cheng's mother, Wang Baocui, was five months pregnant, and on 23 February 1920, she gave birth to Kong. Seventeen days later, on 11 March 1920, Wang died.
Kong had two older sisters, both borne by his mother Wang Baocui. The elder, Kong Deqi (孔德齊, 1913–1939), married the youngest son of Feng Shu (馮恕), a Beijing calligrapher and founder of Beijing Electric Lamp Company, in 1931, but died as a young woman. The younger, Kong Demao (孔德懋, 1917–2021), married Ke Changfen (柯昌汾), third and youngest son of Qing dynasty historian Ke Shaomin (柯劭忞), in 1935. Ke Shaomin's blood brother was Xu Shichang. Kong Demao had two sons and two daughters, and she lived in mainland China and had written a book about her experiences growing up at the family estate in Qufu.Kong Demao, The House of Confucius (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1988).
Kong married Sun Qifang (孫琪方, 1918–2012), a great-granddaughter of Qing dynasty scholar-official Sun Jianai (孫家鼐), who was the first president of Peking University, on 16 December 1936. Sun's ancestral home was in Shouxian, Anhui, and his family's business combine (one of the first in modern China) includes the Fou Foong Flour Company (阜豐麵粉廠). They had four children, two sons and two daughters:
His children all have 維 Wei in their name since it is a generation name, signifying that they are 78th generation descendants of Confucius.
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