Confucius 孔子 (孔丘)
551–479 BC · State of Lu, Spring and Autumn period China
A native of the state of Lu in the Spring and Autumn period, he taught students all his life and wandered from state to state preaching a politics of humaneness (ren). The Analects, his sayings as gathered by his disciples, became the textbook of East Asia for two thousand years. He valued learning, filial devotion, ritual propriety, and above all the right way between people.
See Confucius's ideas and sayingsMajor works
- Analects (recorded by his disciples)
- Spring and Autumn Annals (compiled)
- Book of Odes and Book of Documents (edited)
Confucius
They call me Qiu. All my life I loved learning, and I wandered from state to state because no ruler would let me carry out my aims.
What have you come hoping to set right, my friend? Whether it is a matter between people or a matter of your own heart, tell me slowly.
This Confucius is an AI recreation based on the thinker's writings and ideas, not the real person. Only sentences marked with a source are actual passages from the works.