Quzhou

Quzhou[a] is a prefecture-level city in western Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. Sitting on the upper course of the Qiantang River, it borders Hangzhou to the north, Jinhua to the east, Lishui to the southeast, and the provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi and Anhui to the south, southwest and northwest respectively. Its population was 2,276,184 inhabitants as of the 2020 census of whom 902,767 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made of Qujiang and Kecheng urban Districts.[4] Chinese actress and singer Zhou Xun was born in Quzhou. During the Southern Song dynasty the descendant of Confucius at Qufu, the Duke Yansheng Kong Duanyou fled south with the Song Emperor to Quzhou, while the newly established Jin dynasty (1115–1234) in the north appointed Kong Duanyou's brother Kong Duancao who remained in Qufu as Duke Yansheng.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11] From that time up until the Yuan dynasty, there were two Duke Yanshengs, once in the north in Qufu and the other in the south at Quzhou. An invitation to come back to Qufu was extended to the southern Duke Yansheng Kong Zhu by the Yuan dynasty Emperor Kublai Khan. The title was taken away from the southern branch after Kong Zhu rejected the invitation,[5]: 572 [6][7]: 14 [12] so the northern branch of the family kept the title of Duke Yansheng. The southern branch still remained in Quzhou where they lived to this day. Confucius's descendants in Quzhou alone number 30,000.[13][14] The Hanlin Academy rank of Wujing boshi (五經博士) was awarded to the southern branch at Quzhou by a Ming Emperor while the northern branch at Qufu held the title Duke Yansheng.[5]: 575 [7]: 14 [15][16] Kong Ruogu (孔若古) aka Kong Chuan (孔傳)[7]: 5  47th generation[17][18][19][20][21][22] was claimed to be the ancestor of the Southern branch after Kong Zhu died by Northern branch member Kong Guanghuang.[5]: 575 [8] The leader of the southern branch is Kong Xiangkai (孔祥楷).[23] During the Second World War, Imperial Japanese army used bacteriological weapons in Quzhou, spreading plague, typhoid and other diseases in Quzhou, as well as in Ningbo and Changde. As a result, between 1940 and 1948 more than 300,000 Chinese civilians in the area contracted the plague and other diseases, and an estimated 50,000 died in Quzhou alone.[24]