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Confucius
(redirected from Kongzi)

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Confucius (551–479 BC)

Chinese sage whose name is given to the ethical system of Confucianism. He placed emphasis on moral order and observance of the established patriarchal family and social relationships of authority, obedience, and mutual respect. His emphasis on tradition and ethics attracted a growing number of pupils during his lifetime. The Analects of Confucius, a compilation of his teachings, was published after his death.

Confucius was born in Lu, in what is now the province of Shangdong, and his early years were spent in poverty. Married at the age of 19, he worked as a minor official, then as a teacher. In 517 there was an uprising in Lu, and Confucius spent the next year or two in the adjoining state of Ch'i. As a teacher he was able to place many of his pupils in government posts but a powerful position eluded him. Only in his fifties was he given an office, but he soon resigned because of the lack of power it conveyed. Then for 14 years he wandered from state to state looking for a ruler who could give him a post where he could put into practice his ideas for relieving suffering among the poor. At the age of 67 he returned to Lu and devoted himself to teaching. At his death five years later he was buried with great pomp, and his grave outside Qufu has remained a centre of pilgrimage. Within 300 years of his death, his teaching was adopted by the Chinese state.



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? Mentioned in ? References in periodicals archive
 
Mengzi (Mencius) (370-290 BC) was a Confucian who studied in the school of Zisi, the grandson of Kongzi (Confucius) and whose collected saying, dialogues, and debates--named after him--is one of the four books that together express the essence of Confucianism.
16) In an effort to restore the dwindling authority of the Zhou in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-481 BCE), Kongzi (Confucius) (551-479 BCE), a teacher and prison warder in the state of Lu, developed the concept of custom (li) into a more universal concept, potentially available to all social strata and all ethnic groups.
For more on the role that Confucianism might play in the construction of a modern Chinese culture, see Zhonghua Kongzi xuehui, Jingji quanqiuhua yu minzu wenhua duoyuan fazhan (Economic Globalisation and the Pluralist Development of National Culture) (Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2003); and Chen Qizhi, Ruxue yu quanqiuhua (Confucianism and Globalisation) (Jinan: Qilu shushe, 2004).
 
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