Confucius received a good education since childhood, and served as a minor official in the State of Lu and a small official such as Chengtian. Around the age of 30, Confucius became a well-known scholar and was instructed to start private schools and collect disciples. In 515 BC, when King Xuan of Qi asked the government, he put forward the proposition that "the king and the subjects are 'fathers' and sons", which was not reused. Around 500 years before the park, Confucius began to travel to various countries to promote his political ideas, and was treated coldly. In 484 BC, Confucius returned to the Lu Kingdom, and in his later years he devoted himself to the cause of culture and education, sorting out ancient cultural classics. He died of illness in 479 BC.
Statue of Confucius
Confucius was the greatest thinker, politician and educator of the Spring and Autumn Period in China, and he established the Confucian school that influenced Chinese society for more than two thousand years based on benevolence and courtesy. Confucius proposed that "self-denial and retribution are benevolence, and once self-denial is restored, the whole world returns to benevolence." "Benevolence" is the core and leading spirit of Confucius doctrine, which is embodied in all aspects of Confucius thought. Confucius also proposed that "benevolent people love others", and benevolent people should have compassion for the world and be able to put themselves in the shoes of others. Confucius attaches great importance to personal moral cultivation, he believes that whether a person can become a virtuous person, mainly in his own subjective efforts, people should be strict with themselves, lenient with others, their own virtues, there is no need to worry about whether others appreciate and understand themselves. A gentleman should live in peace and happiness, and sacrifice his life for righteousness. Confucius also advocated the self-reflective method of self-cultivation.
Politically, he proposed "kings, subjects, fathers, sons", and his ideal was to restore the Zhou rites and establish a strict and orderly society. Confucius opposed tyranny and the supervision of the people's power, hoping that the monarch could "benefit the people" and "love the people". Confucius advocated that moral principles should also be implemented in political life and that political behavior should be moralized. In his view, punishment can make people afraid to break the law, but it cannot fundamentally eliminate the motive for crime. Only by using morality and courtesy to indoctrinate and guide the people and raise the people's moral awareness can we make society stable for a long time. The fundamental guarantee for ruling the country with ethics is that the ruler must become a model of morality and influence and educate the people with his own moral demeanor.
In terms of education, Confucius centered on moral education and organically linked his political thought with educational thought. He believes that the fundamental purpose of education is to teach people to be human, and the key to being a human being is to have love, to do what is no longer desired, and not to do to others. Confucius put forward the purpose of "teaching without class", in the teaching, he formulated his own teaching content, created his own teaching methods, taught according to aptitude, and emphasized the combination of learning and thinking, heuristic teaching and disciples active understanding. He also pays great attention to the combination of teaching and practice, teaching and social phenomena. In the process of teaching, he took poetry, books, rituals, music, shooting, imperial and numerical as the specific teaching content, which in turn complemented the text, line, loyalty, and imitation.
Confucius also made great achievements in the collation of classics, he first proposed the term "literature", and combined historical facts and old documents to compile works such as "Yi", "Book", "Ritual", "Music", "Poetry", "Spring and Autumn" and so on. After his death, his disciples followed his will and compiled his words and deeds and quotations into a book and named it the Analects.
Statue of Confucius
Confucius's life was a life of striving to govern learning, persistently pursuing, regardless of honor and disgrace, and serving the country and the people, he was the greatest cultural sage in ancient China, and he had a huge and profound impact on China's society and thought for more than 2,000 years. Although his political ideas could not be realized, his perseverance and broadness that knew that "it could not be done" moved posterity. Emperor Hanping posthumously honored him as Duke Xuanni of Zhongcheng, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang posthumously honored him as King Wenxuan, and Emperor Yuanchengzong posthumously made him The Most Holy Wenxuan of Dacheng. His doctrine was defined as an orthodox idea enjoying a monopoly status in the era of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, and Qing Shengzu personally inscribed a book for him: "Table of Ten Thousand Masters".