孔繁霱 (1894-1959)
Born in Tianjin, China in 1894, Fan Yi Kung belonged to the 74th generation of direct descendants of Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher and educator.
His father, Kong Qingtang, was a German-trained military officer of the Qing dynasty who fought in the first Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the Boxer’s Rebellion (1899-1900) and eventually rose to the rank of army general. A Grinnell local newspaper marveled that Kung could trace his ancestry back two thousand years to 300 BCE and to such an illustrious lineage (GR 2/2/1920).
Kung attended Nankai School from 1912-1916. He set sail for the US in 1917, together with the Nankai President Zhang Boling and fellow Nankai alumni Wen Chien Feng, Kuang Chao Lee, and Feng Tsai, who would all be attending Grinnell for the academic year 1917-1918. They stopped in Japan for a few days on the way, meeting with a group of Nankai alumni studying there, some of whom would later be enrolled at Grinnell College as well, such as P. S. Kao, Kai Yun Lu, and Teng Mei Liu. Kung, a prodigious reader and writer, wrote in the diary his daily experience of a journey that lasted more than one month, such as reading classic Chinese novels and going over a pamphlet title “Grinnell Men and their Ways” sent by the College as an orientation guide.
At Grinnell Kung studied history and political science. He spoke out on Sino-US relationship by publishing an article titled “China’s Friendship Unharmed by Japan” in the student newspaper (SB 10/19/1918). Self-identifying as a Shandong native (perhaps referencing his august ancestor Confucius, a Shandong man), he praised the growing Grinnell-in-China program in Dezhou, Shandong as a testimony to the “profound friendship between the two nations on both sides of the Pacific” and “between the two peoples without any sort of government interference,” while expressing indignation over President Wilson’s proposal to cede China’s Shandong province to Japan at the Paris Peace Conference following WWI. Kung seemed to have put to good use his English writing skills, which had won him numerous awards in Chinese or English essay competitions at Nankai.
In early 1918 he co-founded the Nan Kai Club, the first Nankai alumni association in the US, with him as Chinese Secretary, Kuang Chao Lee as English Secretary, and Wen Chien Feng as Treasurer. In this capacity he faithfully sent back to his alma mater news items from the US, including a detailed day-by-day report of Zhang Boling and three other educators’ visit to Grinnell in November 1918. However, his education at Grinnell was shortly interrupted by his father’s death, which prompted him to hurry back to China in the winter of 1918. In summer 1919 he returned to resume his coursework after one semester’s leave and still managed to graduate on schedule in 1920.
Kung enjoyed an especially strong friendship with fellow Nankai and Grinnell alum Wen Chien Feng. They came together in 1917. After each earning a bachelor’s degree from Grinnell in 1920, they then went together to study at the University of Chicago (1920-1922) and University of Berlin (1922-1926). Kung earned a master’s degree from each institution before returning to China in 1926. He taught history at Tsing Hua University from 1927-1952, except for a break between 1937-1946 due to disruption by the Second Sino-Japanese War. After the nationwide “Adjustment of Colleges and Departments,” a massive reform in higher education in the People’s Republic of China aimed at emulating the Soviet system, Tsing Hua’s History department was absorbed into Peking University in 1952, and Kung continued as a faculty member at PKU. He passed away in Beijing in 1959.
“A Direct Descendant of Confucius.” GR 2/2/1920.
Gao Peng. Nankai Liu Mei Tongxuehui Huibian (Compilation of the Nankai Alumni Association in the US). Unpublished manuscript. 2025.
Kung, Fan Yi. “China’s Friendship Unharmed by Japan.” SB 10/19/1918.
“Kong Fan Yu.” In Zhou Wenye, ed. Tsing Hua Mingshi Fengcai (Famous Teachers of Tsing Hua University). Shandong: Shandong Huabao Chubanshe, 2012. 507-522.