CONFUCIUS

CONFUCIUS (552?–479 bce), known in Chinese as Kong Qiu (also styled Zhongni); preeminent Chinese philosopher and teacher. The name Confucius is the Latin rendering of Kong Fuzi ("Master Kong"). Confucius was born in the small feudal state of Lu, near modern Qufu (Shandong Province). Little can be established about his life, forebears, or family, although legends, some of very early origin, are abundant and colorful. The biography in Sima Qian's Shi ji (Historical Annals, second century bce) is unreliable. The Lunyu (Analects ), a record of Confucius's conversations with his disciples, likely compiled in the third century bce, is probably the best source, although here, too, apocryphal materials have crept in. The Analects may be supplemented by the Zuo zhuan, a commentary to the Chun qiu (Spring and Autumn Annals; also third century bce), and by the Mengzi (Mencius; second century bce).

In all these accounts, fact and legend are difficult to separate. The Zuo zhuan makes Confucius a direct descendant of the royal house of the Shang dynasty (c. 1766–1123 bce), whose heirs were given the ducal fief of the state of Song by the succeeding Zhou dynasty (1111–256 bce). According to this account, three to five generations prior to the sage's birth, his forebears moved to the neighboring state of Lu. His father is said to have been a soldier and a man of great strength; his mother, to have been a woman much younger and not the first wife. Some accounts make Confucius the issue of an illegitimate union. Tradition has it that at his birth dragons appeared in his house, and a unicorn (lin ) in the village. These may command as much belief as the description of Confucius that endows him with a forehead like that of the sage-king Yao, shoulders like those of the famous statesman Zichan, the eyes of Shun, the neck of Yu, the mouth of Gaoyao, the visage of the Yellow Emperor, and the height of Tang, founder of the Shang dynasty.

Of Confucius's childhood and youth, we hear little even from legends, except for references to the early loss of his father, followed later in his youth by the death of his mother. His favorite childhood game was reportedly the setting up of sacrificial vessels and the imitation of ritual gestures. He married young; some accounts allege that he later divorced his wife, although that cannot be proved and is unlikely to be true. He is also supposed to have visited the capital of the Zhou dynasty (present-day Luoyang) and to have met Laozi, from whom he sought instruction. But this report as well appears to be unfounded.

In the Analects, Confucius says that he was of humble status. Perhaps he came from the minor aristocracy, as he received an education—although not from a famous teacher—and also trained in archery and music. He probably belonged to an obscure and impoverished clan. He would say of himself that by age fifteen he had fixed his mind on studying (Analects 2.4). As a young man, he held minor offices, first overseeing stores with the task of keeping accounts, and later taking charge of sheep and cattle (Mengzi 5B.5). Confucius probably served in a junior post at the Lu court, if the Zuo zhuan is correct about his encounter in 525 with the viscount of Tan, a visitor in Lu, of whom he asked instructions regarding the ancient practice of naming offices after birds. At this point Confucius would have been twenty-seven years old.

Confucius lived in an age of great political disorder. The Zhou royal house had lost its authority and the many feudal lords were competing for hegemony. He himself was concerned with the problems of restoring order and harmony to society and of keeping alive the ancient virtues of personal integrity and social justice. For him, a good ruler is one who governs by moral persuasion and who loves the people as a father loves his children. Confucius was especially learned in rites and music, finding in them both the inspiration and the means for the achievement of moral rectitude in society. He reflected deeply on the human situation about him in the light of the wisdom of the ancients. By about the age of thirty he felt himself "standing firm" (Analects 2.4) on his insights and convictions.

Like others of his time, Confucius viewed service in the government—the opportunity to exert moral suasion on the king—as the proper goal of a gentleman (junzi). At about thirty-five, he visited the large neighboring state of Qi. He stayed there for about one year and was so enthralled by the shao music (attributed to the sage-king Shun) that for three months, he claimed, he did not notice the taste of the meat he ate (Analects 7.14). Clearly, he hoped to be of use at the ducal court. The Analects (12.11) reports his conversations with Duke Jing of Qi about government, and his emphatic belief that a ruler should be a good ruler, the minister a good minister, the father a good father, and the son a good son. The duke decided not to use him (Analects 18.3).

In Lu again, Confucius hesitated some time before accepting public office, perhaps because of the complexity of Lu politics. The Ji family, which had usurped power, was itself dominated by its household minister, Yang Hu (or Yang Huo), and Confucius was reluctant to ingratiate himself with this man (Analects 17.1; Mengzi 3B.7). Perhaps it was at this point that he determined to develop his ideas and to teach disciples. He said of himself that "at forty, I had no more doubts" (Analects 2.4). But some time after 502 (Mengzi 5B.4), at about age fifty, he accepted the office of sikou (police commissioner): "At fifty I knew Heaven's decree" (Analects 2.4). In 498 he attempted in vain to break the power of the three leading families of Lu and restore power to the duke. Perhaps this failure caused him to leave Lu the following year. The Analects (18.4) claims that Confucius left because the head of the Ji family of Lu had been distracted from his duties by dancing girls, while the Mengzi (6B.6) gives as the reason the fact that the head of Lu had failed to heed his advice. (The Shi ji reports that Confucius became prime minister of Lu, but there is reason to question the authenticity of the account.)

After leaving Lu, Confucius traveled for some thirteen years with a small group of disciples. He first visited the state of Wei (Analects 13.9). Although Duke Ding of Wei did not have a good reputation, Confucius took office under him, but left his service when the duke asked his advice on military rather than ritual matters (Analects 15.1). To avoid assassins sent by an enemy, he had to disguise himself while passing through the state of Song (Analects 7.23; Mengzi 5A.8). In Chen he accepted office under the marquis; but his stay in Chen was marred by many difficulties and he was once near starvation (Analects 15.2; Mengzi 7B.18). In 489 he went on to the state of Cai, where he met the governor of She, a visitor from Chu. When the governor asked Confucius's disciple Zilu about his master, Confucius offered this description of himself: "[Tell him I am] the kind of man who forgets to eat when trying to solve a problem, who is so full of joy as to forget all worries, and who does not notice the onset of old age" (Analects 7.19). He was then about sixty-three years old. He also said of himself: "At sixty, my ears were attuned [to truth]" (Analects 2.4).

From Cai, Confucius traveled to Wei via Chen and found it in disorder as the deceased duke's son sought to oust the new ruler, his own son, from the ducal throne. Such disputes help us to understand Confucius's insistence on the "rectification of names" (zheng ming )—that fathers should be paternal and sons filial. After extensive travel through states that lay within present-day Shandong and Henan, Confucius returned to Lu around 484. He was given an office, perhaps as a low-ranking counselor (Analects 14.21). He also occupied himself with music and poetry, especially the ya and the song, which now make up two of the sections of the Shi jing (Book of Poetry). During this period he conversed with Duke Ai of Lu and with the head of the Ji family on questions of government and ritual.

It is known that Confucius had at least one son, Kong Li (Boyu), and one daughter, whom he married to his disciple Gongye Chang. He also married the daughter of his deceased elder brother to another disciple, Nan Rong (Analects 5.1, 11.5). Of his son little is known, except that the father urged him to study poetry and rites (Analects 16.13). Although he is popularly portrayed as a severe moralist, the Analects show Confucius as fond of classical music and rituals, informal and cheerful at home, affable yet firm, commanding but not forbidding, dignified and yet pleasant, with an ability to laugh at himself. In his old age, he devoted more and more time to his disciples. He also knew that he had reached spiritual maturity: "At seventy I could follow my heart's desires without overstepping the line" (Analects 2.4). But his last years were saddened by the successive deaths of his son, his favorite disciple, Yan Hui, and the loyal though flamboyant Zilu.

According to the Zuo zhuan, Confucius died in 479 at the age of seventy-three. While no description exists concerning his last hours, the account of a previous illness shows how Confucius probably faced death. At that time Zilu wanted the disciples to attire themselves like stewards in attendance upon a high dignitary. Confucius rebuked him, saying, "By making this pretence of having stewards when I have none, whom do you think I shall deceive? Shall I deceive Heaven? Besides, is it not better for me to die in the hands of you, my friends, than in the hands of stewards?" (Analects 9.12). When Zilu requested permission to pray for him, Confucius replied, "I have already been praying for a long time" (Analects 7.35). The word praying here has been understood to mean living the life of a just man.

Confucius's political ambitions remained largely unrealized; he is remembered by posterity above all as a teacher, indeed as the greatest moral teacher of East Asia. He is said to have accepted students without regard to their social status or ability to pay. While the Shi ji credits him with three thousand disciples, the more conservative number of seventy (or fewer) is more likely. With two known exceptions, most of the disciples were of humble station and modest means. The majority came from Confucius's own state of Lu, although a few were from the neighboring states of Wei, Chen, and Qi.

The modern scholar Qian Mu divides the disciples into two groups—those who had followed Confucius even before he left Lu for ten years of travel and those who came to him after his return to Lu. The earlier disciples include Zilu, Yan Hui, and Zigong. Zilu was the oldest in age, only some nine years younger than Confucius himself; his valor and rashness stand out in the Analects. Yan Hui, the favorite of Confucius, was about thirty years his junior. His early death at about forty caused much sorrow to Confucius. Zigong, about Yan's age, was an enterprising and eloquent diplomat. Zilu perished—in a manner that had been predicted by Confucius—during a rash effort to rescue his master in the state of Wei (480). Zigong served at the Lu court and was leader of the disciples at the time of Confucius's death. He is reported to have stayed on at his master's grave in Qufu for three years longer than the mourning period of twenty-seven months prescribed for the death of one's parents, vivid testimony to the depth of his commitment to his teacher.

The later disciples were mostly much younger, sometimes forty years Confucius's junior. Those mentioned in the Analects include Ziyou, Zixia, Zizhang, Youzi, and Zengzi, who was only about twenty-seven at the time of his master's death. All five men played important roles in spreading Confucius's teachings, but Zengzi, exemplary for his filial piety, is remembered as the principal spiritual heir through whom Confucius's essential message reached later generations.

Traditionally, Confucius has been credited with the editing of the Five (or Six) Classics: the Shi jing (Book of Poetry); the Yi jing (Book of Changes), a divination manual with metaphysical accretions; the Shu jing (Book of History), a collection of speeches and documents; the Li ji (Book of Rites); the Chun qiu (Spring and Autumn Annals), historical records of the state of Lu during the years 722 to 481, said to have been compiled by Confucius; and the now lost Yue jing (Book of Music). Modern scholarship does not support these traditional attributions. Although the Analects mentions Confucius's knowledge of the Poetry, History, and Changes, there is no evidence that he had a part in editing these texts; nor was it his immediate disciples who, in their study of these texts, started the traditions of transmission for them. Of his relation to antiquity, one can say that Confucius loved the ancients—above all the duke of Zhou, to whom the dynasty allegedly owed its rituals and other institutions—and that he read widely in the ancient texts and passed his understanding on to his disciples.

Confucius's place in history derives from his activities as a teacher and from the teachings that he crystallized and transmitted. In an age when only aristocrats had access to formal education he was the first to accept disciples without regard to status. He instructed them—according to each disciple's ability—not only in the rituals, knowledge of which was expected of all gentlemen, but also in the more difficult art of becoming one who is perfectly humane (ren ). Although none of his disciples attained high political office, Confucius the teacher wrought a real social change. Because of his teaching, the word gentlemen (junzi, literally, "ruler's son") came to refer not to social status but to moral character. A new class gradually emerged, that of the shi (originally, "officers" or "government counselors"), a class of educated gentry. Those among the shi especially distinguished for scholarship and character were known as the ru (originally meaning "weaklings"). Hence the Confucian school is known in Chinese as "the Ru school."

Confucius had a clear sense of his mission: he considered himself a transmitter of the wisdom of the ancients (Analects 7.1), to which he nonetheless gave new meaning. His focus was on the human, not just the human as given, but as endowed with the potential to become "perfect." His central doctrine concerns the virtue ren, translated variously as goodness, benevolence, humanity, and human-heartedness. Originally, ren denoted a particular virtue, the kindness that distinguished the gentleman in his behavior toward his inferiors. Confucius transformed it into a universal virtue, that which makes the perfect human being, the sage. He defined it as loving others, as personal integrity, and as altruism.

Confucius's teachings give primary emphasis to the ethical meaning of human relationships, finding and grounding what is moral in human nature and revealing its openness to the divine. Although he was largely silent on God and the afterlife, his silence did not bespeak disbelief (Analects 11.11). His philosophy was clearly grounded in religion, the inherited religions of Shangdi ("lord on high") or Tian ("heaven"), the supreme and personal deities of the Shang and Zhou periods, respectively. He made it clear that it was Heaven that protected and inspired him: "Heaven is the author of the virtue that is in me" (Analects 7.23). Confucius believed that human beings are accountable to a supreme being, "He who sins against Heaven has no place left where he may pray" (Analects 3.13); nevertheless, he showed a certain scepticism regarding ghosts and spirits (Analects 6.20). This marked a rationalistic attitude that became characteristic of the Confucian school, which usually sought to resolve problems by active human involvement rather than by hoping or praying for divine intervention.

Confucius himself was devoted to the civilization of the Zhou dynasty, although he might have been a descendant from the more ancient Shang royal house. The reason for this may have derived from the fact that Chinese civilization assumed a definitive shape during the Zhou dynasty, or from the special relationship Confucius's native state of Lu enjoyed as a custodian of Zhou culture. Its rulers were descended from the duke of Zhou, the man who established the institutions of the dynasty and who acted as regent after the death of his brother, the dynasty's founder.

Confucius's emphasis on rituals is significant, as it is ritual that governs human relationships. Rituals have a moral and social function as well as a formal and ceremonial one. The Chinese word li refers also to propriety, that is, to proper behavior. Confucius teaches also the importance of having the right inner disposition, without which propriety becomes hypocrisy (Analects 15.17).

Confucius's philosophy might appear unstructured to those who cast only a cursory glance at the Analects, perhaps because the book was compiled several generations after Confucius's death. But the teachings found in the Analects, with all their inner dynamism, assume full coherency only when put into practice. Confucius did not attempt to leave behind a purely rationalistic system of thought. He wanted to help others to live, and by so doing, to improve the quality of their society. In defining as his main concern human society, and in offering moral perfection as the human ideal, Confucius has left behind a legacy that is perennial and universal. On the other hand, his teachings also show certain limitations that derive from his culture, the authoritarian character of government, and the superior social status enjoyed by men, for instance. These limitations do not, however, change the validity of his central insights into human nature and its perfectibility.

See Also

Chinese Religion, article on History of Study; Laozi; Li; Ren and Yi; Shangdi; Tian.

Bibliography

For information on Confucius in English, a useful reference work is the Encyclopaedia Britannica (Macropaedia) (Chicago, 1982). His life is well summarized in Richard Wilhelm's Confucius and Confucianism, translated by George H. Danton and Annina Periam Danton (New York, 1931); in H. G. Creel's Confucius: The Man and the Myth (New York, 1949), reprinted under the title Confucius and the Chinese Way (New York, 1960); in the introduction to James Legge's translation of the Analects (1893; 3d ed., Tokyo, 1913), which is not critical enough of the sources; in the introduction to Arthur Waley's translation, The Analects of Confucius (London, 1938), which is definitely better; and in the introduction and appendixes to D. C. Lau's much more recent translation, Confucius: The Analects (London, 1979), which is a further improvement. A summary of Confucius's teachings is also given in Liu Wu-chi's A Short History of Confucian Philosophy (Harmondsworth, 1955), and in the relevant chapters in Fung Yu-lan's A History of Chinese Philosophy, translated by Derk Bodde, vol. 7 (Princeton, 1952). (Volume 2 has excellent chapters on Neo-Confucianism.) My Confucianism and Christianity (Tokyo, 1977) is a comparative study from a theological perspective.

Certain Chinese works are indispensable for a study of Confucius's life. Cui Shu's (1740–1816), Zhusi kaoxin lu, a small work in three juan (with a three juan supplement), offers an excellent critical study. Qian Mu's Xian Qin zhuzi xinian, vol. 1 (Hong Kong, 1956), is immensely useful. Gu Jiegang's Gushibian, vol. 2 (Shanghai, 1930–1931), should also be consulted.

There are interesting Japanese studies of Confucius's life. Kaizuka Shigeki's Koshi (Tokyo, 1951) has been translated into Chinese (Taibei, 1976); Geoffrey Bownas's English translation, Confucius (London, 1956), is also recommended. Morohashi Tetsuji's Nyoze gamon Koshi den (Tokyo, 1969) reports both facts and legends while distinguishing between them wherever possible.

New Sources

Gier, Nicholas. "Whitehead, Confucius, and the Aesthetics of Virtue." Asian Philosophy 14 (July 2004): 171–191.

Henderson, John B. Scripture, Canon, and Commentary: A Comparison of Confucius and Western Exegesis. Princeton, N.J., 1991.

Jensen, Lionel. Manufacturing Confucianism: Chinese Traditions and Universal Civilization. Durham, N.C., 1997.

Mou, Bo. "A Re-Examination of the Structure and Content of Confucius's Version of the Golden Rule." Philosophy East and West 54 (April 2004): 218–249.

Olberding, Amy. "The Consummation of Sorrow: An Analysis of Confucius's Grief for Yan Hui." Philosophy East and West 54 (July 2004): 279–302.

Sim, May. "The Moral Self in Confucius and Aristotle." International Philosophy Quarterly 43 (December 2003): 439–463.

Van Norden, Bryan W. Confucius and the Analects: New Essays. New York, 2002.

Julia Ching (1987)

Revised Bibliography