CONFUCIUS
(b. 551, Qufu, state of Lu [now in Shandong province,
China]—d.
479 BCE, Lu)
Cconfucius was
China’s most famous teacher, philosopher, and political theorist. His ideas
have exerted an enormous influence on China and other civilizations of East
Asia.
Confucius’s life, in contrast to
his tremendous importance, seems starkly undramatic—or, as a Chinese expression
has it, “plain and real.”
Although the facts about Confucius’s
life are scanty, they do establish a precise time frame and historical context.
Confucius was born in the 22nd year of the reign of Duke Xiang of Lu (551 BCE).
The traditional claim that he was born on the 27th day of the eighth lunar
month has been questioned by historians, but September 28 is still widely
observed in East Asia as Confucius’s birthday. It is an official holiday,
“Teachers’ Day,” in Taiwan.
Confucius’s family name was Kong
and his personal name Qiu, but he is referred to as either Kongzi or Kongfuzi
(Master Kong) throughout Chinese history. The adjectival “Confucian,” derived
from the Latinized Confucius, is not a meaningful term in Chinese, nor is the
term Confucianism, which was coined in Europe as recently as the 18th century.
Confucius’s ancestors were
probably members of the aristocracy who had become virtual poverty-stricken
commoners by the time of his birth. His father died when Confucius was only
three years old. Instructed first by his mother, Confucius then distinguished himself
as an indefatigable learner in his teens.
Confucius had served in minor
government posts managing stables and keeping books for granaries before he
married a woman of similar background when he was
19. It is not
known who Confucius’s teachers were, but he made a conscientious effort to fi
nd the right masters to teach him, among other things, ritual and music. His
mastery of the six arts—ritual, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and
arithmetic—and his familiarity with the classical traditions, notably poetry
and history, enabled him to start a brilliant
teaching career in his 30s.
In his late 40s and early 50s Confucius served
fi rst as a magistrate, then as an assistant minister of public works, and
eventually as minister of justice in the state of Lu . It is likely that he accompanied King Lu
as his chief minister on one of the diplomatic missions. Confucius’s political
career was, however, short-lived. At 56, when he realized that his superiors
were uninterested in his policies, Confucius left the country in an attempt to
fi nd another feudal state to which he could render his service. Despite his
political frustration he was accompanied by an expanding circle of students
during this self-imposed exile of almost 12 years. His reputation as a man of
vision and mission spread. Indeed, Confucius was perceived as the heroic
conscience who knew realistically that he might not succeed but, fired by a
righteous passion, continuously did the best he could. At the age of 67 he
returned home to teach and to preserve his
cherished classical traditions by writing and
editing. He died in 479 BCE, at the age of 73. According to the Records of the Historian, 72 of his
students mastered the “six arts,” and those who claimed to be his followers
numbered 3,000.
Painting of Chinese philosopher Confucius. Hulton Archive/ Getty Images
The Analects
The story of
Confucianism does not begin with Confucius. Nor was Confucius the founder of
Confucianism in the sense that Buddha was the founder of Buddhism and Christ
the founder of Christianity. Rather Confucius considered himself a transmitter
who consciously tried to reanimate the old in order to attain the new. He
proposed revitalizing the meaning of the past by advocating a ritualized life.
Confucius’ love of antiquity was motivated by his strong desire to understand
why certain life forms and institutions, such as reverence for ancestors,
human-centred religious practices, and mourning ceremonies, had survived for
centuries. His journey into the past was a search for roots, which he perceived
as grounded in humanity’s deepest needs for belonging and communicating. He had
faith in the cumulative power of culture. The fact that traditional ways had
lost vitality did not, for him, diminish their potential for regeneration in
the future. In fact, Confucius’ sense of history was so strong that he saw
himself as a conservationist responsible for the continuity of the cultural
values and the social norms that had worked so well for the idealized
civilization of the Western Zhou dynasty.
The Lunyu (Analects), the
most revered sacred scripture in the Confucian tradition, was probably compiled
by the succeeding generations of Confucius’ disciples. Based primarily on the
Master’s sayings, preserved in both oral and written transmissions, it captures
the Confucian spirit in form and content in the same way that the Platonic
dialogues embody the pedagogy of Socrates.
The purpose of compiling these
distilled statements centring on Confucius seems not to have been to present an
argument or to record an event but to offer an invitation to readers to take
part in an ongoing conversation with
the Master.
Confucius’ life as a student and teacher exemplified his idea
that education was a ceaseless process of selfrealization. When one of his
students reportedly had difficulty describing him, Confucius came to his aid:
“Why did you not simply say something to this effect:
he is the sort of man who forgets to eat when he engages himself in vigorous
pursuit of learning, who is so full of joy that he forgets his worries, and who
does not notice that old age is coming on?”
Confucius was deeply concerned
that the culture (wen) he cherished
was not being transmitted and that the learning (xue) he propounded was not being taught. His strong sense of
mission, however, never interfered with his ability to remember what had been
imparted to him, to learn without flagging, and to teach without growing weary.
The community that Confucius
created was a scholarly fellowship of like-minded men of different ages and
different backgrounds from different states. They were attracted to Confucius
because they shared his vision and to varying degrees took part in his mission
to bring moral order to an increasingly fragmented world. This mission was
difficult and even dangerous. Confucius himself suffered from joblessness,
homelessness, starvation, and occasionally life-threatening violence. Yet his faith
in the survivability of the culture that he cherished and the workability of
the approach to teaching that he propounded was so steadfast that he convinced
his followers as well as himself that heaven was on their side.
As a teacher of humanity Confucius
stated his ambition in terms of concern for human beings: “To bring comfort to
the old, to have trust in friends, and to cherish the young”. Confucius’ vision
of the way to develop a moral community began with a holistic reflection on the
human condition. Instead of dwelling on abstract speculations such as man’s
condition in the state of nature, Confucius sought to understand the actual
situation of a given time and to use that as his point of departure. His aim
was to restore trust in government and to transform society into a flourishing
moral community by cultivating a sense of humanity in politics and society. To
achieve that aim, the creation of a scholarly community, the fellowship of junzi (exemplary people), was essential.
The fellowship of junzi as moral vanguards of society,
however, did not seek to establish a radically different order. Its mission was
to redefine and revitalize those institutions that for centuries were believed
to have maintained social solidarity and enabled people to live in harmony and
prosperity. An obvious example of such an institution was the family.
It is related in the Analects that Confucius, when asked why
he did not take part in government, responded by citing a passage from the
ancient Shujing (“Classic of History”),
“Simply by being a good son and friendly to his brothers a man can exert an
influence upon government!” to show that what a person does in the confines of
his home is politically significant. This maxim is based on the Confucian
conviction that cultivation of the self is the root of social order and that
social order is the basis for political stability and enduring peace.
The assertion that family ethics
is politically efficacious must be seen in the context of the Confucian
conception of politics as “rectification” (zheng).
Rulers should begin by rectifying their own conduct; that is, they are to be
examples who govern by moral leadership and exemplary teaching rather than by
force. Government’s responsibility is not only to provide food and security but
also to educate the people. Law and punishment are the minimum requirements for
order; the higher goal of social harmony, however, can only be attained by
virtue expressed through ritual performance. To perform rituals, then, is to
take part in a communal act to promote mutual understanding.
One of the fundamental Confucian
values that ensures the integrity of ritual performance is xiao (filial piety). Indeed, Confucius saw filial piety as the
first step toward moral excellence, which he believed lay in the attainment of
the cardinal virtue, ren (humanity).
To learn to embody the family in the mind and heart is to become able to move
beyond self-centredness or, to borrow from modern psychology, to transform the
enclosed private ego into an open self. Filial piety, however, does not demand
unconditional submissiveness to parental authority but recognition of and
reverence for the source of life. The purpose of filial piety, as the ancient
Greeks expressed it, is to enable both parent and child to flourish. Confucians
see it as an essential way of learning to be human.
Confucius defined the process of
becoming human as being able to “discipline yourself and return to ritual.” The
dual focus on the transformation of the self (Confucius is said to have freed himself
from four things: “opinionatedness, dogmatism, obstinacy, and egoism”) and on
social participation enabled Confucius to be loyal (zhong) to himself and considerate (shu) of others. It is easy to understand why the Confucian “golden
rule” is “Do not do unto others what you would not want others to do unto you!”
Confucius’ legacy, laden with profound ethical implications, is captured by his
“plain and real” appreciation that learning to be human is a communal
enterprise.
