Confucius, Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Confucius (September 28, 551 BC – 479 BC) was a Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history.
The philosophy of Confucius emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity.
- His followers competed successfully with many other schools during the Hundred Schools of Thought era only to be suppressed in favor of the Legalists during the Qin Dynasty.
- Following the victory of Han over Chu after the collapse of Qin, Confucius’s thoughts received official sanction and were further developed into a system known in the West as Confucianism.
- Confucius is traditionally credited with having authored or edited many of the Chinese classic texts including all of the Five Classics, but modern scholars are cautious of attributing specific assertions to Confucius himself. Aphorisms concerning his teachings were compiled in the Analects, but only many years after his death.
Confucius’s principles had a basis in common Chinese tradition and belief.
- He championed strong family loyalty, ancestor veneration, and respect of elders by their children and of husbands by their wives.
- He also recommended family as a basis for ideal government.
- He espoused the well-known principle “Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself,” which became the Golden Rule.
- Confucius is also a traditional deity in Daoism.
Words of Wisdom
He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place when all the stars are rotating about it.