Legend has it that the sculptures were made by Zi Gong, a disciple of Confucius, but they are actually works from the Song dynasty (960-1279). In the late Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), Confucius' 48th-generation linear descendant Kong Duanyou went south with royals and set up a Confucius temple in Quzhou city, Zhejiang province. He took the sculptures with him to Quzhou and put them in an ancestral hall in the temple for worship. Confucius’ descendants after him had all carried them when moving around to avoid wars in later years, and regard them as a family treasure.