Kong Rong (pronunciationⓘ) (151[1]/153 – 26 September 208[2]), courtesy name Wenju, was a Chinese poet, politician, and minor warlord who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China.

Famed for his quick wits and elaborate literary style, Kong Rong was ranked among the Seven Scholars of Jian'an, a group of representative literati of his time.

A well-known story commonly used to educate children – even in contemporary times – on the values of courtesy and fraternal love involves a four-year-old Kong Rong giving up the larger pears to his older and younger brothers.

This story, commonly known as "Kong Rong giving up pears" (孔融讓梨), is also mentioned in the Three Character Classic, a text used for elementary education since the Song dynasty.

Born in the former Lu state (present-day southern Shandong and northern parts of Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu), Kong Rong showed quick wit from a young age.

According to the Epilogue of Han (續漢書) by Sima Biao (司馬彪), when he was a teenager, Kong Rong paid a visit to an official named Li Ying, who received no one but the very eminent and his own relatives.

Kong Rong answered that his ancestor Confucius was a student and friend of Lao Tzu (whose family name was said to be Li(李)).

He was successively promoted and in 190 was appointed Chancellor of Beihai State, situated in Qing Province, the area most heavily contested by the Yellow Turban rebels during the 180s.

[4] When Kong Rong heard of this, he wrote Cao Cao a letter, falsifying a parallel in ancient history, claiming King Wu of Zhou arranged marriage between his brother the Duke of Zhou and the beautiful consort Daji, lately the favourite of the defeated king Di Xin, and legendarily blamed for the downfall of the Shang dynasty.

An alternate but similar story could also be found in A New Account of the Tales of the World by Liu Yiqing (劉義慶), which is written in a more elaborate style.

Not a single official who used to be close to him dared to collect the corpses for burial except Zhi Xi (脂習), who came to Kong Rong's body and cried, "Now you have left me for death, whom could I talk to who would understand me?"

Although he did not meet with much success in politics, Kong Rong was considered a leading literary figure of his time, famed for his prose as well as poetry.

Civil strife towards the end of the Han dynasty gave the Jian'an poems their characteristic solemn yet heart-stirring tone, while lament over the ephemerality of life was also a central theme of works from this period.