The Site of Fan Zizhi

The Site of Fan Zizhi

The Site of Fan Zizhi is a cultural tourism attraction.

Yutai is located in the land of Confucius and Mencius, a place steeped in etiquette and rich in history and culture. As early as six to seven thousand years ago, the Dongyi Taohao tribe settled here. From ancient sites within the county such as Qixia Gudu, early cultures created by the ancestors of Yutai, including the Longshan Culture and Shang-Zhou Culture, have been discovered. Here, the tale of the “Three Sages Within Five Li” continues to be told, and the story of “Whipping the Reed Catkins” remains widely known among both young and old. The “Three Sages”—Min Ziqian, Fan Zizhi, and Mi Zijian—were all among the seventy-two disciples of Confucius. The three lived no more than five li apart from each other, hence the name “Three Sages Within Five Li.” In 2005, Wang Yuxi, then Secretary of the Jining Municipal Committee of the CPC, personally inscribed the phrase “Filial Piety Is Seen in the People of Changlizhai” for Changlizhai Village in Wanglu Town. In 2008, the Yutai County Party Committee and County Government organized the Yutai Filial Piety and Sage Culture Festival.

Fan Zi, also known as Xu, styled Zizhi, and also called Fan Chi (505 or 515 BCE – ?), was a native of the State of Lu or possibly the State of Qi during the late Spring and Autumn period. He was a student of Confucius. His ancestors were descended from Zhongyong, the second son of King Tai of Zhou, specifically Zhongshanzhong (the second son of Duke Xian of Lu), who assisted King Xuan of Zhou and contributed to the revival of his reign, becoming a renowned minister. He held the position of Qingshi (a high-ranking official) and was enfeoffed by King Xuan in the region of Fan, granted the title of Marquis of Fan, and established the State of Fan. His descendants took the name of their fiefdom as their surname. Historically, Fan was located in present-day Jiyuan City, Henan Province, originally the settlement of the Fan clan, one of the seven clans descended from Tang of Shang, known as Fanpo, later renamed Yangfan. After the Zhou dynasty overthrew the Shang, King Wu of Zhou placed the seven clans of the Shang descendants under the management of King Zhou’s son, Wu Geng. Later, they rebelled against the Zhou along with Wu Geng, and were suppressed by the Duke of Zhou and Jiang Ziya. The remnants were divided into three groups: one was handed over to Weizi to transform from Shang to Song, another was relocated to Qi under the supervision of Jiang Ziya, and the remaining group was placed under the supervision of Kangshu, the maternal younger brother of the Duke of Zhou, in the State of Wei, where they were enslaved and lost their surname.

Zhongshanzhong had three sons: the eldest inherited the throne; the second served as an official in Zhou but, unable to inherit the throne, was enfeoffed south of the Han River and established Fancheng; the third settled north of Ren, on the fief land of Shouzhang (now the area around Hegang and Gengcun in Liying Town, Rencheng District, Jining City) originally granted by Duke Xian of Lu to his second son Zhongshanzhong. He took his father’s fiefdom as his surname, commonly known as Fan San Gong. The settlement was renamed Fanpo and later became a prominent clan. After the Qin dynasty unified China, Fan County was established, under the jurisdiction of Rencheng Commandery.

According to genealogical records and historical materials: Fan San Gong had a son named Jia; Jia had a son named Boxu; Boxu had a son named Dongyangfu; Dongyangfu had a son named Gongqin; Gongqin had a son named Pi; Pi gave birth to Fan Zi in the spring of the fifth year of Duke Ding of Lu (505 BCE) in Fan, north of Ren. The ancestral tombs were all located about twenty li northwest of today’s Rencheng District, Jining City, in the west of Nanzhang Town. Before the Cultural Revolution, there was the tomb of Fan San Gong to the west, the tomb of Fan Zi, and the Han-era Fan family tomb cluster (commonly known as Fanjiagudu or Fanjialin).

Fan Zi was forty-six years younger than Confucius. At the age of eighteen, he went to Qufu to become a student of Confucius, but at that time, Confucius was traveling among the states and had not yet returned, so he was unable to achieve his wish. Later, he served alongside Ran Qiu under Ji Sun. He earned Ran Qiu’s deep trust. In the spring of the eleventh year of Duke Ai of Lu (484 BCE), when Qi invaded Lu, Ran Qiu led the left army to resist Qi, with Fan Chi as deputy general. He fought bravely, leading his troops to charge into the Qi army and achieve a great victory, earning military merit. That autumn, when Confucius returned to Lu, he accepted Fan Zi as a disciple and had him drive his carriage, never leaving his side. He became one of Confucius’s favorite disciples in his later years.

Fan Zi was diligent in his studies and eager for knowledge. He asked Confucius about “filial piety,” “benevolence,” and “wisdom” three times, and directly consulted Confucius on farming and vegetable cultivation. Even while walking with Confucius under the Wuyu Terrace at noon, he asked questions such as “how to cultivate virtue,” “how to correct hidden faults,” and “how to distinguish confusion.” Within just three years, he mastered the Six Arts—ritual, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics—a rarity among Confucius’s disciples.

In the sixteenth year of Duke Ai of Lu (479 BCE), when Confucius passed away, Fan Zi observed the mourning period for three years. Soon after, entering the Warring States period, to avoid the chaos of war and especially due to past conflicts with Qi, Fan Zi once lived in seclusion in Zhu and Tao. Later, he came to Tang with Min Zi and Mi Zi to establish a school, spreading teachings along the Jishui River (now Wutai in Yutai). He had hundreds of disciples. This is the origin of the “Three Sages Within Five Li.”

It is said that after Fan Zi came to Tang, in addition to actively collaborating with Min Zi and Mi Zi in running the school, he also cared about local agricultural production. Based on the waterlogged terrain of the area, he developed a method of digging square pits and building raised fields, creating production models such as grain-based fish ponds, nursery-based fish ponds, fruit-based fish ponds, and mulberry-based lotus ponds. These methods became widely spread and still have some influence on agricultural production today.

In the autumn of the fourteenth year of Duke Dao of Lu (454 BCE), Min Zi, Mi Zi, and Fan Zi drove together to Qufu to pay respects to their teacher Confucius. On the way, Fan Zi died suddenly of a cold in Tao at the age of fifty-two. Under the direction of Min Zi and Mi Zi, Fan Zi was buried on the north bank of the Ji River, about one li southwest of his former residence in Fan Village (now Fan Village in Yutai County), beneath the Wutang Pavilion. It has been over two thousand four hundred and sixty years since then. The Fan Zi Ancestral Hall and Residence were originally located in his former home in the Fan family village. Due to historical reasons, they were rebuilt in the center of Wutai Village in the fourth year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty.

The Tomb of Fan Chi is located fifty meters south of Wutai Village, Wanglu Town, Yutai County, approximately three hundred meters west of the Wutang Pavilion site. In 1985, it was designated as a key cultural relic protection unit of Yutai County; in 2002, it was designated as a key cultural relic protection unit of Jining City. In 2005, it was designated as a key cultural relic protection unit of Shandong Province in the third batch of designations since the founding of the People’s Republic of China fifty-five years prior. The protected area is temporarily set at ten thousand square meters.

Wanglu Town: Wanglu Town is the only central town in Yutai County designated by the provincial government in 2000. It is located in the western part of the county, bordered by the Xizhi River to the east (adjacent to the east side of the County Party Committee), the Hui River to the west (where Wanglu Town is located), the South Ring Road to the south, and the West Lake Dike to the north. It is the location of the County Party Committee and County Government offices. The town covers a total area of 39.97 square kilometers, governs 19 administrative villages and 71 natural villages, with a total population of 33,491 and cultivated land area of 37,420 mu. The town currently has 29 administrative officials, including 9 at or above the deputy section level. There are 16 career officials and 63 career workers.

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