孔吉 / Kong Ji (Western Han)

Overview

孔吉 / Kong Ji is a Western Han Confucius-family figure who appears in Hanji 553 as the person 汉成帝 enfeoffs after officials treat the Confucius line as the usable ritual successor to the Shang-Tang line.

Current Profile

The source says Chengdi had ordered a search for Shang descendants, but officials found the old lineage dispersed into many surnames and hard to identify through a direct heir. 匡衡 and Mei Fu therefore argue that the Confucius family can be honored as a Shang-Tang successor line, and Chengdi accepts the recommendation by making Kong Ji Yin Shaojia Hou. In Suihe 1 / 8 BCE, the source says Kong Ji and the Zhou successor marquis are both elevated to ducal rank, each with a hundred-li domain.

Kong Ji’s role in this wiki is therefore narrow. He is not treated as a political actor in the Three Excellencies reform; he anchors the episode’s opening ritual-lineage material before the source turns to 何武, 王根, and top-office balance.

Key Characteristics

• Confucius-family figure used in this source as a ritual successor to the Shang-Tang line.
• Enfeoffed by Chengdi as Yin Shaojia Hou after officials cannot identify a straightforward Shang direct descendant.
• Elevated to ducal rank in the same Suihe 1 / 8 BCE notice that also raises the Zhou successor line.

Evidence

• Lineage search problem: Hanji 553 says Shang descendants had scattered into many surnames, making a direct heir hard to locate.
• Enfeoffment: Hanji 553 says Chengdi follows the proposal to make Kong Ji Yin Shaojia Hou.
• Ducal elevation: Hanji 553 says Kong Ji is raised to ducal status in Suihe 1 / 8 BCE.

Qualifications

This page is bounded to Hanji 553. It does not reconstruct Kong Ji’s full genealogy, later title transmission, relationship to 孔光, or the complete Han policy toward ancient royal successor lines.

What Changed

• Created a bounded page for the Kong-family ritual-lineage actor introduced in Hanji 553.

Relationships

• 汉成帝 - ruler who accepts the enfeoffment and later ducal elevation.
• 孔光 - same broad Confucius-family political field, though this source does not define their exact kinship relation.
• 芮淇讲透资治通鉴 - source series preserving this episode-level summary.