The Lif Of Confucius Essay, Research Paper

Confucius , an ancient Chinese phylosopher was one of the most influential people in Chinese history, because of his wisdom and fair mind. Confucius was so influential that today there is even a religion based on his ideas.Many os Confucius’s ideas had to do with a proper family life with rule to mold a good future citizen. He does state a difference between civic obedience and filiality, because civic obedience makes a child rebellios. According to tradition, Confucius was born in the state of Lu under the noble K’ung clan. His original name was K’ung Ch’iu. His father, commander of a district in Lu, died shortly after Confucius was born, leaving the family in poverty; but Confucius nevertheless received a good education. Confucius was married at the age of 19 and had one son and two daughters. During the four years immediately after his marriage, poverty forced him to work doing menial labors for the chief of the district in which he lived. His mother died in 527 BC, and after a period of mourning he began his career as a teacher, usually traveling about and instructing the small body of disciples that had gathered around him. His fame as a man of learning and character and his reverence for Chinese ideals and customs soon spread through the principality of Lu.Living as he did in the second half of the Chou dynast, when feudalism degenerated in China and intrigue and vice were rampant, Confucius deplored the contemporary disorder and lack of moral standards. He came to believe that the only remedy was to convert people once more to the principles and precepts of the sages of antiquity. He therefore lectured to his pupils on the ancient classics. He taught the great value of the power of example. Rulers, he said, can be great only if they themselves lead exemplary lives, and were they willing to be guided by moral principles, their states would inevitably become prosperous and happy.

Confucius had, however, no opportunity to put his theories to a public test until, at the age of 50, he was appointed magistrate of Chung-tu, and the next year minister of crime of the state of Lu. His administration was successful; reforms were introduced, justice was fairly dispensed, and crime was almost eliminated. So powerful did Lu become that the ruler of a neighboring state maneuvered to secure the minister’s dismissal. Confucius left his office in 496 BC, traveling about and teaching, vainly hoping that some other prince would allow him to undertake measures of reform. In 484 BC, after a fruitless search for an ideal ruler, he returned for the last time to Lu. He spent the remaining years of his life in retirement, writing commentaries on the classics. He died in Lu and was buried in a tomb at Ch’u-fu, Shandong.Confucius did not put into writing the principles of his philosophy so these were handed down only through his disciples. Many of Confucius’s ideas probably came from looking back on his childhood and seeing what worked and what did not, and seeing that he realized that civil obedience was not what worked, but with filiality a child is raised with rules but that child is not treated cruely. He also was compassionate for the poor because of his own past experiences.