Confucius

Chinese philosopher, educator and statesman (551–479 BC), born in the state of Lu, in present-day Shandong province, into an impoverished noble family, and educated despite modest social origins through self-taught study of the rituals, music, poetry and history of the Zhou dynasty, which he would go on to become the great codifier and transmitter of. He held various minor administrative posts in his home state and aspired for years to obtain a position of political influence that would allow him to put his ideas for the moral reform of government into practice, an aspiration never fully realised, which led him to spend more than a decade wandering through various Chinese states accompanied by a group of disciples, offering counsel to rulers who rarely heeded it. His doctrine, known in the West by the Latinised name Confucianism, has not reached us directly from his own hand but through the Analects (Lunyu), a collection of maxims and brief dialogues compiled by his disciples after his death, which constitutes the foundational text of the entire later Confucian tradition. The core of his ethical and political thought revolves around the concept of ren, often translated as 'humaneness', 'benevolence' or 'human virtue', the supreme moral quality manifested in respect, compassion and rectitude toward others, learned and cultivated through study, constant self-examination and, above all, the scrupulous practice of li, the rituals and norms of propriety governing social and family relations. Confucius placed particular emphasis on the importance of the five fundamental hierarchical relationships (ruler–subject, father–son, husband–wife, elder brother–younger brother, friend–friend) as the foundation of social order, and argued that good government depends more on the moral example of rulers than on coercive laws and punishments — his maxim 'govern through virtue and all will turn toward you, as the stars turn toward the pole star' sums up this conviction. Confucianism, elevated to state philosophy under the Han dynasty and later reworked by Song-dynasty Neo-Confucianism, has exerted for more than two thousand years an absolutely central influence on the political, ethical and educational culture of China and of all East Asia.

6 works

• The Analects
• The Analects (ed. 2)
• The Analects (zh)
• The book of filial duty
• The Four Books I: Analects, Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean (Legge)
• The Wisdom of Confucius