Kung Te-cheng was born amid the turmoil of the May Fourth Movement, with its rejection of Confucian ideology, yet the Kung family's prestige still held an irreplaceable standing. A glimpse of such status may be seen from the time the Qianlong Emperor sought the union of the Imperial Family and the House of Kung.
孔德成出生時，正逢「五四運動」打倒孔家店的思潮亂流激盪之際，然而孔家的崇隆聲望，仍有無可取代的地位，這從當年乾隆皇帝和孔府「攀親家」一事可窺見一斑。