`shəs), Chinese K'ung Ch'iu or K'ung Fu-tzu [Master K'ung], c.551–479? B.C., Chinese sage. Positive evidence concerning the life of Confucius is scanty; modern scholars base their accounts largely on the Analects, a collection of sayings and short dialogues apparently collected by his disciples, and discard most of the later legends. Confucius was born in the feudal state of Lu, in modern Shandong prov. Distressed by the constant warfare between the Chinese states and by the venality and tyranny of the rulers, he urged a system of morality and statecraft that would preserve peace and provide people with stable and just government. He gathered about him a number of disciples, some occupying high positions, although Confucius himself was at most granted an insignificant sinecure, possibly because of his extremely outspoken manner toward his superiors. From about his 55th to his 65th year he journeyed to several neighboring states, but he was never able to induce any ruler to grant him high office so that he might introduce his reforms. Later tradition depicts Confucius as a man who made special study of ancient books, in an effort to restore an older social order. It is said that he was a minister of state and the author, editor, or compiler of the Wu Ching [five classics] (see Chinese literature Chinese literature, the literature of ancient and modern China.
Early Writing and LiteratureIt is not known when the current system of writing Chinese first developed. The oldest written records date from about 1400 B.C.
..... Click the link for more information. ). His supposed doctrines are embodied in Confucianism.
Bibliography
For bibliography, see Confucianism Confucianism , moral and religious system of China. Its origins go back to the Analects (see Chinese literature), the sayings attributed to Confucius, and to ancient commentaries, including that of Mencius.
..... Click the link for more information. .
Confucius
Chinese Kongfuzi or K'ung-fu-tzu(born 551 BC, Ch'ü-fu, state of Lu—died 479, Lu) Ancient Chinese teacher, philosopher, and political theorist. Born into a poor family, he managed stables and worked as a bookkeeper while educating himself. Mastery of the six arts—ritual, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and arithmetic—and familiarity with history and poetry enabled him to begin a brilliant teaching career in his thirties. Confucius saw education as a process of constant self-improvement and held that its primary function was the training of noblemen (junzi). He saw public service as the natural consequence of education and sought to revitalize Chinese social institutions, including the family, school, community, state, and kingdom. He served in government posts, eventually becoming minister of justice in Lu, but his policies attracted little interest. After a 12-year self-imposed exile during which his circle of students expanded, he returned to Lu at age 67 to teach and write. His life and thoughts are recorded in the Lunyu (Analects). See also Confucianism.
Confucius
Confucius
(K’ung-tzu). Born circa 551 B.C.; died 479 B.C. Ancient Chinese thinker; founder of Confucianism.
Confucius was the son of an impoverished noble. He spent most of his life in the kingdom of Lu. In his youth he worked as a minor official; later he founded China’s first private school. The basic ideas of Confucius are set forth in the Analects (Lun yü literally, “conversations and opinions”), which is a record of Confucius’ sayings and conversations with his closest students and followers. Jen (“humaneness”) is the most important concept of the ethical and political teachings of Confucius: it is the totality of ethical and social relations between people, based on respect for and deference to elders and superiors and devotion to the sovereign. The pronouncements of Confucius reflect the class, aristocratic bias of his teachings. He resolutely contrasted ch’ün tzu (“noble men”) with commoners, or hsiao jen (“little people”). The first were called upon to rule over the second and to serve as an example for them. When Confucianism became a state doctrine (after 136 B.C.), Confucius was declared “teacher of ten thousand generations.” His cult was officially supported until 1911 (the beginning of the bourgeois Hsin-hai Revolution).
REFERENCES
Popov, P. S. Izrecheniia Konfutsiia, uchenikov ego i drugikh lits. Saint Petersburg, 1910. (Translated from Chinese.)Petrov, A. A. “Ocherk filosofii Kitaia.” In the collection Kitai. Moscow-Leningrad, 1940.
Istoriia filosofii, vol. 1. Moscow, 1957. Chapter 1.
Vasil’iev, L. S. Kul’ty, religii, traditsii v Kitae. Moscow, 1970.
Li Chang-chih. Kung-tzu-te ku-shih. (Biography of Confucius.) Shanghai, 1957.
Rygaloff, A. Confucius. Paris, 1946.
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