Confucius And Chinese History Trivia

Depending on the person or religious scholar, Confucianism is referred to as a philosophy and by others a religion. Most comprehend it as a form of humanism that is all-encompassing that neither denies nor tries to prove there is (or is not) a heaven.

In any case it has had an influence on the political and spiritual arena of China and has also spread to countries such as Japan, Vietnam, and Korea. The percentage of East Asians who identify themselves as Taoists, Buddhists, Muslim, Christian, or Shintoists, never leave their Confucian roots, and consider themselves to be of both faiths.

The religion was founded sometime between the fifth to sixth century BC in China. Confucius lived from 551 to 479 BC. About 5.5 million people practice this religion (or philosophy) whichever one wishes to translate it to be.

Confucianism is not an Asian word. It actually originated in the 1700's and is Latin.

Confucius was born into a poor home whose family were part of the aristocracy of the feudal state of Lu in what is now the Shantung Province of China. He became a dedicated learner in his teens with the support of his mother so that he could become a scholar in his later years. His father died before he turned four years old.

Though it is not known where or how Confucius became educated, history has shown us that he mastered six arts; math, charioteering, calligraphy, archery, music, and ritual in his twenties. He began a peerless teaching career in his early thirties. By that time though he had not mastered, he became very familiar with poetry and history; well enough to teach both as well.

Over the years of his teachings he had a goal of putting into practice his learnings and transfer them into politics. This became a problem due to his loyalty to the king, which isolated him from the power-holders during his adulthood, the well-known Chi families. His moral rectitude was not settling to the king's inner circle.

In his mid-50's, he realized these dynamics and left China hoping he could find another government who would accept his vision of politics mixed with education. He couldn't but even through years of frustration of over a decade, he managed to become a teacher-in-exile and developed an amazing reputation of a man of unique vision and his reputation spread throughout the world.

Twelve years later he returned to China to teach and try to make public his evolved yet classical traditions by writing. He lived another eight years and died at age seventy three in 479 BC.

In the Analects (2:4) he summarizes his life in just a few sentences: At 15 I set my heart on learning; at 30 I firmly took my stand; at 40 I had no delusions; at 50 I knew the Mandate of Heaven; at 60 my ear was attuned; at 70 I followed my heart's desire without overstepping the boundaries of right. Also in the Analects, Confucius assists a student who was having difficulty describing him: Why did you not simply say something to this effect: he is the sort of man who forgets to eat when he engages himself in vigorous pursuit of learning, who is so full of joy that he forgets his worries, and who does not notice that old age is coming on? (7:18)Confucianism actually did not begin with Confucius. Confucius was not even the founder of the religion; just as Jesus dis not found Christianity, nor did many other religious leaders found religions founded later in their honor, but Buddha did create Buddhism.

"A transmitter to consciously tried to retrieve the meaning of the past by breathing vitality into seemingly outmoded rituals", was how Confucius considered himself. Confucius' love of antiquity was motivated by his strong desire to understand why certain rituals, such as the ancestral cult, reverence for Heaven, and mourning ceremonies, had survived for centuries. He had faith in the cumulative power of culture. Confucius' sense of history was so strong that he saw himself as a conservationist responsible for the continuity of the cultural values and the social norms that had worked so well for the civilization of the Chou dynasty.

Though Taoism and Buddhism had very strong influences in China, they paled by comparison to the ethics of Confucian. A revival of Confucian thought in the 11th century produced Neo-Confucianism, a major influence in Korea during the Choson dynasty and in Japan during the Tokugawa period. In 1530 AD, a Ming emperor reformed the Confucian cult to focus more on Confucius' teachings than the sage himself (e.g. images of Confucius were replaced with inscribed tablets). The cult of Confucius declined after the founding of the Chinese Republic in 1912, but the influence of Confucianism continues. Confucianism is characterized by a highly optimistic view of human nature. The faith in the possibility of ordinary human beings to become awe-inspiring sages and worthies is deeply rooted in the Confucian heritage (Confucius himself lived a rather ordinary life), and the insistence that human beings are teachable, improvable, and perfectible through personal and communal endeavor is typically Confucian.Confucius regarded Heaven (T'ien) as a positive and personal force in the universe; he was not, as many have suggested an agnostic or a skeptical of a universal higher power.