Confucius Enjoyed Shao Music Here

In 517 B.C., Confucius arrived at Linzi, the capital of Qi state. He witnessed personally the pomp
of Shao music performance in Qi and became ecstatic in the world of music. According to Linzi
County Annals compiled in the ninth year of the Republic of China, during the reign of Jiaqing in
Qing Dynasty, an ancient stele carved with the inscriptions "Confucius Enjoyed Shao Music
Here" was unearthed from a village at the southeast of the ancient city of Linzi, together with
several chime stones. People thereby named this village "Shao Yuan Village". Later the stele
was lost. Today the stele as we see on the brick wall of the location was a substitute made in the
third year of Xuantong. The Shao Yuan Village was once the music palace of Qi.

Xu Heng - Confucianist and Educator of the Yuan Dynasty

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Xu Heng (Chinese: , 1209-1281), was a Confucianist and educator of the Yuan Dynasty in

China.
Xu Heng was born in present-day Xinyang of Henan Province, which was then governed by the
Jin Dynasty. At the age of 16, he studied Confucian Classics and became enamoured of it. In
early 1230s, when the Jin Dynasty was annihilated by the Mongols, he was captured, but soon
freed. He then became a famous educator in Confucianism. After Kublai Khan's enthronement
in 1260, Xu Heng, along with many other Confucianists such as Liu Bingzhong and Wang Xun,
was invited by Kublai Khan to the court. He resigned next year, but was invited again later by
Kublai Khan, and became an official of the Zhongshusheng (Chinese: , "Department of
Central Governing"). In 1271, Kublai Khan founded the Yuan Dynasty, and established the
National Academy (Chinese: ) of the dynasty, with Xu Heng being its first leader
(Chinese: ). Xu Heng was then devoted to education, and actively supported the
spread of Neo-Confucianism. Later, he helped Guo Shoujing to formulate a new Chinese
calendar known as Shoushili (Chinese: ). In 1280 he resigned and returned home, and
died in the next year.