Historian Thomas A. Wilson has a nice site, Cult of Confucius, with discussion and information on the canonization of Confucius in imperial China (HT Frog in a Well).  Here's something to think about:

The
division of the philosophical masters and their followers of the late
Zhou into discrete schools gained greater currency in the Han when Sima
Tan's essay appeared in the Historical Records, begun under his
editorship and completed by his son, Sima Qian. Even in Liu Xiang's
(77-6 B.C.) more "Confucian" essay summarizing seven schools of the late
Zhou, one is struck by a concern that Kongzi's followers had splintered
rather than unified this school. Liu distinguishes among 103 schools of
Kongzi's followers, divided according to different exegetical traditions
of the Confucian canon. Two other terms to refer to this school were
coined in Sima Qian's Historical Records: the "forest of the
learned" (ru lin), which became the standard term in most
subsequent dynastic histories, and Ru Learning, which, along with Ru
jia, is commonly used today to refer to Confucianism.

This raises the question of whether, without fairly strict institutional intervention by state authority, Confucianism has a natural tendency to run off in a variety of directions.  At present, although we don't reach the 103 different schools that Liu Xiang identified, there are various distinct expressions of Confucianism.  John Makeham, in his marvelous book, Lost Soul: "Confucianism in Contemporary Chinese Academic Discourse, remarks:

In the period under study, Chinese commentators have tended to present ruxue either as a monolithic tradition or as a composite entity composed of discrete elements.  Those who adopt the monolithic conception tend to do so unreflectively.  The view of ruxue as a composite informs most academic discussions of ruxue and rujia thought.  Accordingly, the literature deploys a welter of terms to distinguish different conceptions of ruxue – classical, official, unofficial, popular, political, secular, aristocratic, institutional, spiritual, social, imperial, deep structure, critical, real life, New, Post-New, and New New….(99)

(I get a kick out of the name "New New" – it makes me think of the Grateful Dead.)

In any event, the PRC state is not now enforcing an ideological or philosophical orthodoxy when it comes to Confucianism.  So, I guess we should expect a "forest of the learned," with many trees of many shades…. 儒林

(photo of the "forest of stele" at the Confucian Temple in Xian):