Confucius



Confucius

Introduction

Kong Qiu (K'ung Ch'iu) is best known in the West as Confucius. Confucius was born in Nishan, Qufu (Ch'ü-fu), a town in central China in what was then the state of Lu. During his lifetime, the Zhou (or Chou) dynasty (11th-third century B.C.E.) no longer wielded the authority it once had enjoyed. China was experiencing a period of feudalism, during which power essentially rested with the leaders of a number of small states. Struggles for influence often occurred within individual states and between neighboring leader-warlords. In his philosophy, Confucius would look back to a supposed golden age earlier in the Zhou dynasty, a time when order reigned and when rulers and subjects behaved as befitted their roles in society.

Discussion

Life

Confucius's father, who held a minor government post, died when his son was three, leaving the boy to grow up under his mother's influence. Married at age 18, Confucius had children and worked at a number of menial jobs. Despite his love of learning and desire to serve the state, Confucius was unable to obtain a meaningful government position until, in his late 40s or early 50s, the duke of Lu appointed him minister of public works, then minister of justice. He soon left office, however. Tradition says he was disgusted with government corruption, but he may also have offended important members of the nobility. He spent some years traveling outside of Lu and in 484 B.C.E. returned to his home state, where he died five years later.

Philosophy

The cornerstone of Confucius's philosophy is ren, a word that appears more than 100 times in the Analects. It means "showing magnanimity, compassion, and humaneness in one's thoughts and actions." To exhibit humaneness is the epitome of virtue. In one passage, Confucius asserts that "the humane man, wishing him to be established, sees that others ...