This weekend in one corner of a sprawling graveyard James Hung, 14, embarked on a rite of passage in the country shaped by Confucius’s ideals. He joined 100 men from all over China as they marched in procession through the world’s largest family cemetery, stopping at a tiny shrine surrounded by piles of apples, oranges, rice cakes and velveteen cushions, This was the annual Tomb-Sweeping Ceremony – so important in China that it has from this year been declared a national holiday so that people can take the time to clean the graves of their ancestors in a rite that dates back to the precepts of the sage himself. The holiday falls on April 4, but the descendants of Confucius brought their private family ritual forward a week to avoid the crowds.