Confucius

Confucius (Chinese Kǒngzǐ, meaning "Master Kong") was a Chinese philosopher who lived from the late sixth to the early fifth century BCE, during the Spring and Autumn period, when the authority of the Zhou dynasty had fragmented among many rival domains. He is the founding figure of the tradition named after him, Confucianism, and one of the most influential thinkers in human history. Much of the cultural heritage shared across China and its neighbours traces back to his teachings, which spread well beyond his own lifetime.

He was born in Zou, in what is now Shandong, into a noble family that had fallen on hard times. His father died when he was young, and his mother raised him in poverty. He was educated at schools for commoners, where he studied the Six Arts, and belonged to the shi class, positioned between the aristocracy and ordinary people. In his early years he held modest jobs, such as bookkeeper and caretaker of sheep and horses. Tradition holds that after his mother's death he observed three years of mourning, as custom required. Teaching gradually became his main occupation and drew a considerable circle of students, while he also held posts in the small state of Lu. He eventually rose to Minister of Crime, but his plan to strengthen the duke's authority by dismantling the fortified strongholds of the great aristocratic families met stiff resistance. According to the sources, he left his homeland after this attempt failed and spent years travelling, looking for a ruler who would put his principles into practice.

His thought centres on personal morality and good government. Confucius held that a harmonious society rests on well-ordered relationships between parents and children, rulers and subjects, and friends. He championed filial piety, respect for elders and family loyalty as the foundation of social life, and argued that a ruler should lead by example and virtue rather than by coercion. He presented himself as a transmitter of values from earlier times that, in his view, had been neglected. His negative formulation of the Golden Rule, not doing to others what one does not wish for oneself, sums up a central part of his ethics. His sayings were gathered in the Analects, but only many years after his death, so scholars caution against attributing any particular statement to him with certainty.

His influence was vast. After a period of rejection under the Qin legalists, his ideas were officially endorsed under Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty, and his texts became required reading for those seeking government posts. During the Tang and Song dynasties Confucianism developed into what the West calls Neo-Confucianism, and in the twentieth century a movement emerged that sought to apply his doctrine to the modern world. Few thinkers have shaped the social, political and educational life of China and its wider cultural sphere as deeply.