Titans of History

A man who has regard to the old in order to discover the new is best qualified to teach others.

Confucius, Analects 2, 11

Confucius was a Chinese philosopher and teacher whose influence was felt—and continues to be felt—not only in his native China but throughout east Asia. He regarded learning as the true path toward individual self-improvement, but, in a manner that was to leave an indelible mark on all subsequent Eastern thinking, he also took an eminently practical view of his role. He saw culture and refinement, based firmly on tradition and correct ritual observance, as the keys to good governance and sought to put his ideas into practice by taking an active role in the administration of his country.

The son of impoverished aristocrats, Confucius was born and grew up in the state of Lu (the modern-day Shandong province). “Confucius” is a Latinized version of his name; in the East he is known as Kongzi or Kongfuzi (meaning “Master Kong”—his family name). Though his exact birthday is not certain, it is celebrated according to east Asian tradition on September 28.

By the age of fifteen Confucius had become an avid and dedicated learner, with a prodigious appetite for the six disciplines of calligraphy, arithmetic, archery, charioteering, ritual and music. He was particularly noted for his incessant questioning of his teachers at the Grand Temple. As a young man he took various jobs, working as a cowherd, shepherd, stable manager and bookkeeper. He married when he was nineteen and dutifully followed tradition in mourning his mother for three years after she died when he was twenty-three. Confucius spent most of his twenties combining his working life with a devotion to education.

His knowledge of the six disciplines was bolstered by extensive study of history and poetry, and in his thirties he was ready to start on a brilliant teaching career. Before his day, teaching was usually carried out by private tutors to the children of the wealthy, or else it was essentially vocational training in administrative posts. Confucius took a radical new approach, advocating learning for all as a means of benefiting both pupil and society alike. He started a program of study designed for potential leaders, reasoning that an educated ruler would be able to disseminate his learning to his subjects and so improve society as a whole.

Unlike many other wise men of the time, who shunned human interaction and were detached from society, Confucius engaged wholeheartedly with the government of his state. He served as a magistrate, rising to become assistant minister of public works, and then was promoted to the position of minister of justice. When he was fifty-three, he became chief minister to the king of Lu, accompanying him on diplomatic missions.

But Confucius’ influence on the king and his strict moral principles alienated him from the rest of the court, who conspired to obstruct him. Realizing that his message was going unheeded, Confucius left the court and went into self-imposed exile. During the twelve years of his absence, Confucius toured the states of Wei, Song, Chen and Cai, teaching and developing his philosophy. His reputation as the “wooden tongue in the bell of the age” began to spread.

Confucius’ thinking was partly a reaction to the extreme lawlessness of his age, a time of unrest in which neighboring warlords were constantly in conflict with one another. His position was essentially conservative, emphasizing the importance of tradition, proper ritual observance and respect for elders and ancestors. He saw himself as a conduit of learning, who invented nothing but simply passed on received wisdom and encouraged self-inquiry and the personal quest for knowledge. He believed that rulers, chosen on merit rather than according to lineage, should not impose rules and govern by means of threats of punishment, but rather should develop their own virtues and so earn the devotion of their subjects.

Confucius’ sayings were collected after his death in the Analects, which form the basis of what Westerners now call Confucianism (the term does not translate meaningfully into Chinese). His most famous precept, the so-called “golden rule,” is mirrored in countless later moral systems (including Christianity). It is well captured in the following exchange:

Adept Kung asked: Is there one word that can guide a person in life?

The master replied: How about shu? Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.

The idea of shu (roughly, reciprocity) runs through Confucius’ ethics, which are also underpinned by the notions of li, yi and ren. The concept of li equates approximately with ritual, yi with righteousness, and ren with kindness or empathy.