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Person551 BC – 479 BC

Confucius

Also called: Kongzi, Kong Qiu

Thinker of the state of Lu at the end of the Spring and Autumn period, founder of the Confucian school who taught benevolence (ren) and ritual propriety (li); his words are recorded in the Analects

He lost his father young and grew up poor, but loved learning and mastered ritual and the classics. He held office in Lu, but clashed with the ministers who held real power, and in his fifties spent fourteen years wandering among the states with his disciples. Returning home late in life, he devoted himself to teaching and editing old texts, training outstanding disciples such as Yan Hui, Zigong and Zilu. After his death his disciples compiled his sayings as the Analects, and he was later revered as the Supreme Sage.

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2 related events

  1. 1
    551 BC – 479 BCConfucius and Confucianismkey figure

    Confucius of Lu taught that social order should be restored through benevolence (ren) and ritual propriety (li), founding the Confucian school. His disciples compiled his sayings as the Analects.

  2. 2
    500 BC – 221 BCThe Hundred Schools of Thoughtrelated figure

    As lords of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods sought able men, Confucians, Daoists, Mohists, Legalists and many others (the Hundred Schools) offered rival ways of governing.

People who appear alongside

  • Mencius372 BC – 289 BC

    Confucian thinker of the Warring States period who held that human nature is good and argued for the kingly way of rule by virtue and for the people as the root of the state

  • Han Feizi233 BC

    Legalist thinker of the state of Han at the end of the Warring States period who synthesised Legalism (law, technique and authority); his writings influenced the First Emperor

  • Shang Yang338 BC

    Statesman of Qin in the Warring States period whose Legalist reforms under Duke Xiao laid the foundations of Qin’s wealth and power

Themes this person appears in

  • Ancient China and India770 BC – AD 220

    From the Hundred Schools of the Warring States to the unified empires of Qin and Han, and from the Buddha to the Maurya and Kushan empires — the millennium that shaped East and South Asian civilisation