But we know very little about his childhood. What we do know is that he turned himself into an expert on the literature and history and poetry of an earlier age in China, and with that he created his own doctrine. The purpose of the doctrine was to restore peace and order. The time in which he lived was a time of war and conflict in China between numerous feudal states, and he believed he had devised a doctrine of virtue that could bring prosperity back to China.
In his own life, unfortunately, he failed in that vision, because he could not find the dukes and kings to adhere to his ideas. But where he did succeed was as a very successful teacher.
But it is interesting that, even though he considered the family to be so important, we know so little about his own family. There are a few mentions in The Analects of a son and a daughter.
Part of the reason may be the way the records were left. The Analects is really a collection of snippets of conversation that Confucius had with his disciples. But it is odd that a guy who thought the family was the foundation of society spent most of his time with his students, whom he was clearly very close with. The most famous was the former president of South Korea, Kim Dae Jung , who spent decades as a democracy advocate in Korea and believed that Confucius gave people the right to choose their leadership and also overthrow a leader who was immoral or tyrannical.
Today there are several societies that are highly influenced by Confucianism but are also democratic, like South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.
So I think history is telling us that you can be both Confucian and democratic. Later, during the Tang dynasty, two female scholars created a text based on his ideas, which became known as the Analects for Women. It enshrined the idea that the roles of men and women should be highly separated.
The outer realm of politics, business, and civic life was for men. The inner realm of caring for children and managing the home was for women. This became deeply entrenched in Chinese society, and unfortunately lingers to this day. The International Monetary Fund did a study in that showed that only 9 percent of corporate management positions in Japan and South Korea were held by women, compared with 43 percent in the United States.
This is demeaning for women and a national problem. In an age where you want to make your economies as competitive as possible, these societies are marginalizing a lot of their best talent. I started by walking around with a copy of The Analects in my bag.
But I had an image of Confucius in my head that was quite negative, which I think many people in modern times hold: that he was arch-conservative, anti-women, and pro-autocracy. When he died in B. The Analects would go on to guide governments and individuals for millennia, informing and influencing Chinese history and civilization in the process. During his lifetime, Confucius was not particularly appreciated in his native city of Qufu, in eastern China. Time has remedied that oversight.
The devotion of subsequent Chinese rulers and people over the centuries has helped preserve his now hallowed ground. The Temple of Confucius was built shortly after the sage died in B.
Peasant farmers were the core of Chinese agricultural society. Their lives were brutally hard. No matter how hard they work, they can be ruined by floods or droughts, or cruel and arbitrary officials By Han times, peasants had plows with iron tips and were aided by oxen and donkeys. But taxes were grinding, and farmers also had to perform mandatory government labor.
Their shrinking farms were divided among multiple heirs. Banditry and rebellion began to take hold, and peasant uprisings were a threat into the 20th century. All rights reserved. Culture Reference. Who was Confucius? Confucius was a Chinese philosopher, politician, and teacher whose message of knowledge, benevolence, loyalty, and virtue were the main guiding philosophy of China for thousands of years. His thoughts on ethics , good behavior, and moral character were written down by his disciples in several books, the most important being the Lunyu.
Confucianism believes in ancestor worship and human-centered virtues for living a peaceful life. Confucianism is best understood as an ethical guide to life and living with strong character. Yet, Confucianism also began as a revival of an earlier religious tradition.
There are no Confucian gods, and Confucius himself is worshipped as a spirit rather than a god. However, there are temples of Confucianism, which are places where important community and civic rituals happen. This debate remains unresolved and many people refer to Confucianism as both a religion and a philosophy. Natural disasters and conflict are the result of straying from the ancient teachings.
Confucius believed in the importance of education in order to create this virtuous character. He thought that people are essentially good yet may have strayed from the appropriate forms of conduct.
Rituals in Confucianism were designed to bring about this respectful attitude and create a sense of community within a group. The family was the most important group for Confucian ethics, and devotion to family could only strengthen the society surrounding it. While Confucius gave his name to Confucianism, he was not the first person to discuss many of the important concepts in Confucianism. Rather, he can be understood as someone concerned with the preservation of traditional Chinese knowledge from earlier thinkers.
The most famous of these disciples were Mencius and Xunzi, both of whom developed Confucian thought further. Confucianism remains one of the most influential philosophies in China.
Confucius recognized an opportunity — and an obligation — to reinforce the societal values of compassion and tradition. He believed that ren could be put into action using the Golden Rule, "What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others. He believed that a leader needed to exercise self-discipline in order to remain humble and treat his followers with compassion. In doing so, leaders would lead by positive example. According to Confucius, leaders could motivate their subjects to follow the law by teaching them virtue and the unifying force of ritual propriety.
To Confucius, the main objective of being an educator was to teach people to live with integrity. Through his teachings, he strove to resurrect the traditional values of benevolence, propriety and ritual in Chinese society. Confucius is credited with writing and editing some of the most influential traditional Chinese classics.
Far-reaching in its influence, Lunyu was later translated into English under the title The Analects of Confucius. Other books by Confucius include a rearrangement of the Book of Odes as well as a revision of the historical Book of Documents. He also compiled a historical account of the 12 dukes of Lu, called the Spring and Autumn Annals.
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