show excessive grief if not for this man?". Even years later, Confucius would say that no other student could take Yan Hui's place, so gifted and dedicated Yan Hui had been. Veneration Yan Hui, along with Confucius himself, was venerated by the first emperor of the Han dynasty. The title which he now has in the sacrificial Canon—Fusheng ("Continuator of the Sage")—was conferred in the ninth year of the Jiajing era, A.D. 1530. Almost all the present sacrificial titles of the worthies in the Temple of Confucius were fixed at that time. Yan Hui's place is the first of the Four Assessors, on the east of Confucius. Descendants The Yan family were from Langye (). The Yans abandoned northern China in 317. The devastation of the north during the Western Jin's (266–420) collapse caused the southward journey of Yan Han, who was mentioned in the Guan wo sheng fu by Yan Zhitui. After that, they served the Southern Dynasties. In 495 CE, Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei, who venerated Confucius and his teachings, bestowed official ranks upon two scions of Yan Hui's lineage. The clan had resided in the south for eight generations when Yan Zhitui (531–591) was born. His grandfather, Yan Jianyuan had committed suicide by hunger strike after the 502 rebellion against the Southern Qi. Yan Zhitui's father was Yan Xie. His elder brothers were Yan Zhiyi and Yan Zhisan. Yan Zhitui himself served under several dynasties during his lifetime and composed the Family Instructions to the Yan Clan (Yanshi Jiaxun 顏氏家訓). He also compiled the Yuanhun Zhi 冤魂志. In the approximately 1,000 years from Yan Hui's to Yan Zhitui's generation, two Yans sought a military career; most of the Yans served as literati. For most of the Ming (1368–1644) and during the entire Qing (1644–1912) dynasty, Yan Hui's descendants held the hereditary title of Wujing Boshi (五经博士; 五經博士; Wǔjīng Bóshì), a scholarly rank from the Hanlin Academy. The current only direct descendant (the seventy-ninth generation) of Yan Hui is Yan Binggang (顏秉刚). In Taiwan there is an office called the "Sacrificial Official" (Fengsiguan 奉祀官) to the Four Sages of Confucianism, which include Yan Hui. Shrines Yan Hui is venerated at the Temple of Yan Hui, which is located in Qufu's walled city, a few blocks north of the Temple of Confucius. Yan Hui's tomb is now surrounded by hundreds of tombs of his descendants, forming the