The Encyclopedia of World Religions

100 S Confucius

it is out of favor in communist China, it lives on in Taiwan. Confucianism has also profoundly influ enced traditional values and ways of life in Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. Further reading: Ch’u Chai, and Winberg Chai, Confucianism (Woodbury, N.Y.: Barron’s Educational Series, 1973); David S. Nivison, and Arthur Wright, Confucianism in Action (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1959); James R. Ware, The Sayings of Confucius [The Analects] (New York: Mentor, n.d.); Hsin-chung Yao, An Introduction to Confucianism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000). Confucius (551–479 B . C . E .) Latin for the Chinese name K’ung-fu-tzu, “Master K’ung”; a profoundly influential Chinese moral teacher whose thought gave rise to C ONFUCIANISM Confucius was born in China at a time of unrest in the middle of the Chou period. Little is known for certain about his life, and many details that follow are legendary. It is said that Confucius’s family had some sta tus but little wealth. Despite the family’s poverty, he received an education and hoped for a political career. He served the government in some minor posts, such as overseeing sheep and cattle. Perhaps around the age of 40, he also began to teach. With time Confucius rose to a position of some respon sibility, but he became disillusioned because he was unable to influence the duke of Lu, his home state. He resigned around the age of 54, and for the next 13 years he traveled around China, look ing for a ruler who would put his ideas into prac tice. He was unsuccessful, perhaps because his teachings emphasized virtue at a time when rulers were looking for action. About five years before his death he returned to Lu, where he taught and may have held another office. During his lifetime, then, Confucius’s influence was minimal. After his death, his teachings came to exercise a profound influence on the Chinese state. Some suggest that Confucius should be seen as a moral rather than a religious teacher. Indeed, Confucius’s teachings redirected to the living the

Engraving of Confucius (Image Select/Art Resource, N.Y.)

respect and li ( RITUALS ) that Chinese had tradi tionally given to dead ancestors. Confucius also made revolutionary innovations in the institu tion of teaching. Before his time, education was available only to those with the means to buy it. Confucius taught that education should be open to all who had interest and intellectual ability, regardless of whether they could pay. Despite these radical innovations, Confucius saw himself not as an innovator but as a restorer of Chinese traditions. In keeping with this self-image, he is said to have edited five traditional Chinese clas sics ( see I C HING ). As a teacher, Confucius did not aim to impart knowledge or foster intellectual ability but to nur ture a quality of the inner person known in Chi