About Confucius' clan name character

The paper deals with the initial semantic field of the character kong (孔) known as Confucius' ancestral character. The author describes the features of its integration into the cultural pattern of the Zhou ritual and explains the origin and early history of the character, its semantic connection with the character zi (子) and jia (嘉). It is concluded that the initial meanings of the character kong are «to differ» («to mark», «to emphasize») and «excellent» («different», «selected»). Such semantics explains the frequent usage of this character during Spring and Autumn period and the fact that it was given by the leader of Song to Kong-fu Jia (孔父嘉), the ancestor of Confucius, with the result that the character kong became a new clan name or shi among the forefathers of Confucius.