What did Confucius believe?, as well as facts and information, is contained in National Geographic.
All people, and the society they live in, benefit from a lifetime of learning.
The height of Confucius was recorded as nine feet six inches.The document exaggerates his size, but there is no doubt that he was a teacher and philosopher of tremendous stature.The national identity of China and the civilization of East Asia are entwined with his ideals.
The individual known in the West as Kongqiu was born in 541 B.C.In eastern China, near Qufu.He took menial jobs as a young man, which caused his family to fall on hard times.
There was a zeal for academics early on.He told his disciples that he set his heart on learning.He studied a lot of things.He was entranced by the early years of the Zhou dynasty.He thought the period was a golden age to be emulated.
Personal qualities such as generosity, reciprocity, and filial piety were emphasized by Confucius.
Confucius believed that education and reflection led to virtue, and that those who aspire to command others must cultivate discipline and moral authority in themselves.He used his position as a bully pulpit to preach good governance, even though he tried to rise through the government ranks.He was appointed to the influential post of minister of crime in Lu but fell from favor due to his reform efforts.
He tried to return to public service in order to improve it from within, but found success as a teacher.The belief that all human beings could benefit from education was broken by Confucius.He believed in lifelong learning for the sake of the self.He had many followers who knew him as Kongfuzi.The Analects is a collection of ethical concepts.
According to The Analects, Confucius believed that social harmony would naturally follow from the proper ordering of individuals in relation to one another, with the family unit as the basic building block of society.He stressed the importance of personal qualities such as generosity, reciprocity, and filial piety to the formation of well-educated, conscientious individuals who would benefit society through public service.
In his own day, he was largely ignored.Thousands of students devoted themselves to preserving and propagating their master's precepts after he died.The Han dynasty adopted the teachings of Confucius as their state ideology in the second century B.C.The Analects would inform and influence Chinese history and civilization for thousands of years.
In his hometown of Qufu, in eastern China, he was not appreciated very much.Time has fixed that oversight.His now hallowed ground has been preserved by the devotion of subsequent Chinese rulers and people over the centuries.
The family mansion is one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites.In 479 B.C., the Temple of Confucius was built.It has become a 50-acre complex.The glazed tiles on the roof of his temple are yellow, a color usually reserved for the emperor.