Confucius's 77th-generation heir was made a duke as a baby, and Red Guards later dug up his father and hung the body from a tree

From 1055 Chinese governments gave the title Duke Yansheng to the eldest male in each generation of Confucius's main line, with estates at Qufu. The 76th duke, Kong Lingyi, died in 1919^†. His only son, Kong Te-cheng, was born in 1920 to a concubine, Wang Baocui, after his father's death^†, and was named Duke Yansheng soon after birth. In 1935 the Nationalist government abolished the dukedom and made him Sacrificial Official to Confucius. He left for Taiwan with the government in 1949 and later headed the Examination Yuan. In November 1966 Red Guards from Beijing Normal University, led by Tan Houlan, damaged the Cemetery of Confucius at Qufu^†. A wife of a 77th-generation descendant wrote in The Spectator in 2003 that Red Guards opened the 76th duke's grave, stripped the body and hung it from a tree in front of the family mansion. Kong Te-cheng died in Taiwan in October 2008, aged 89. His grandson, Kung Tsui-chang, 79th generation, inherited the office; in 2014 he said he had first visited Qufu in 2011 and performed family rites at the cemetery. The temple, cemetery and Kong family mansion at Qufu are a UNESCO World Heritage site; the cemetery holds the remains of more than 100,000 of Confucius's descendants.