Confucius

About Confucius


Confucius (lit. "Master Kong," but most frequently referred to as Kongzi traditionally September 28, 551 – 479 BC) was a famous Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese life and thought.
His philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. These values gained prominence in China over other doctrines, such as Legalism (法家) or Taoism (道家) during the Han Dynasty. Confucius' thoughts have been developed into a system of philosophy known as Confucianism (儒家). It was introduced to Europe by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci, who was the first to Latinise the name as "Confucius" .
His teachings are known primarily through the Analects of Confucius (論語), a collection of "brief aphoristic fragments", which was compiled many years after his death. Modern historians do not believe that any specific documents can be said to have been written by Confucius , but for nearly 2,000 years he was thought to be the editor or author of all the Five Classics such as the Classic of Rites(editor), and the Spring and Autumn Annals (春秋) (author).Personal life and familyAccording to tradition, Confucius was born in 551 BCE (during the Spring and Autumn Period, at the beginning of the Hundred Schools of Thought philosophical movement) in the city of Qufu, which was located in the Chinese State of Lu (now part of present-day Shandong Province and culturally and geographically close to the royal mansion of Zhou). He was born into a poor deposed noble family which had recently fled from the State of Song.
The Records of the Grand Historian (史記), compiled some 400 years later, indicate that Confucius was conceived out of wedlock (野合). His father was seventy, and his mother only eighteen at his birth. His father died when he was three, and he was brought up in poverty by his mother. His social ascendancy linked him to the growing class of Shì (士), a class between the old nobility and the common people. This class later became the prominent class of Intellectual because of the cultural and intellectual skills they shared. His father had a wife but she bore him 9 girls. Even so, as he wanted a son, he married another woman and she bore him a son. But, the son was handicapped. Thus, he married a third woman, who bore him Confucious. As a child, Confucius was said to have enjoyed putting ritual vases on the sacrifice table. He married to a young girl named Qi Quan (亓官) at the age of 19, and she had their first child Kong Li (孔鯉) when he was 20. In order to earn his family's living, he had even been shepherd, cowherd, clerk and book-keeper.When Confucius was 23, his mother died sending him to three years of mourning.
As a young man, he was a minor administrative manager in the State of Lu and rose to the position of Justice Minister (大司寇) when he was 53. After two years of service for the state of Lu, Confucius resigned because he disapproved of the politics of his Duke.
According to the Analects of Confucius, the state of Lu was prosperous thanks, in part, to the wise administration of Confucius. This is unlikely as Confucius never held any major position in either Lu or anywhere else. There is a legend that the neighbouring state of Qi(齊) was worried that Lu was becoming too powerful. Qi then decided to sabotage Lu's reforms by sending one hundred good horses and eighty beautiful dancing girls to the Duke of Lu. The Duke of Lu then indulged himself in pleasure and did not attend to official duties for three days. At the sacrificial rites he did not give the counselors the meat in accordance to the rites. Confucius, felt sorrow for this poor courtesy, decided to leave Lu .
Confucius then began a long journey (or set of journeys) around the small kingdoms of north-central China, including State of Wei (衛), Song (宋), Chen (陳) and Cai (蔡). He tried, unsuccessfully, to convince many different rulers of the correctness of his political beliefs and to see them implemented. He and his followers even were blocked between boundary of Chen and Cai, and almost fell into starvation. The story says that when he was 68, Confucius returned home and spent the last years of his life teaching disciples and transmitting the old wisdom via a set of books called the Five Classics .
Burdened by the loss of both his son and his favourite disciples, he passed away at the age of 72 (or 73).


Teachings

In the Analects, Confucius presents himself as a "transmitter who invented nothing".
He put the greatest emphasis on the importance of study, and it is the Chinese character for study that opens the text. In this respect, he is seen by Chinese people as the Greatest Master. Far from trying to build a systematic theory of life and society or establish a formalism of rites, he wanted his disciples to think deeply for themselves and relentlessly study the outside world, mostly through the old scriptures and by relating past political events (like the Annals) or past feelings of common people (like the Book of Odes).
In times of division, chaos, and endless wars between feudal states, he wanted to restore the Mandate of Heaven that could unify the "world" (i.e., China) and bestow peace and prosperity on the people. Therefore, Confucius is often considered a great proponent of conservatism, but a closer look at what he proposes often shows that he used (and maybe twisted) past institutions and rites to push a new political agenda of his own: rulers (not lord of states) to be chosen on merit, not parentage, rulers who were devoted to their people, and rulers who reached for perfection. Such a ruler would spread his own virtues to the people instead of imposing proper behavior with laws and rules.
One of the deepest teachings of Confucius, one of the hardest to understand from a Western point of view, may have been the superiority of exemplification over explicit rules of behavior. His ethics may be considered one of the greatest virtue ethics. This kind of "indirect" way to achieve a goal is used widely in his teachings by way of allusions, innuendo, and even tautology. This is why his teachings need to be examined and put into proper context in order to understand them. A good example is found in this famous anecdote:
When the stables were burnt down, on returning from court, Confucius said, "Was anyone hurt?" He did not ask about the horses.
Source: Wikipedia