who is confuscious?

Question

no jokin around.. seriously!

Answer 1

A very, very, very wise man.

Answer 2

Confucious: One of the most famous people in ancient China. He was a wise philosopher and named Confucius (circa 551-479 BC). He sometimes went by the names Kong Zi though he was born - Kong Qiu - styled Zhong.

Answer 3

Confucious was a Chinese sage who is venerated for his contribution to Chinese religious and philisophical literature.He is considered to be the author of the Five Classics of Chinese literature. His commentary on the I Ching is used extensively throughout Asia.

Answer 4

Confucious was a thinker and philosopher amongst many other things in China.

Answer 5

Chinese Philosopher.

Basically Stephen Hawking from many centuries ago.

Answer 6

he was a chinese philosopher, teacher, and i forgot what else.

Answer 7

Chinese philosopher.

Answer 8

seriously... I dunno.. but he/she sure has lots to say! lol

Answer 9

I'm pretty sure you mean Confucius - A Chinese philosopher - so here you go:

Confucius say, "man with hole in pocket, feel cocky all day"
Confucius say, "duck who fly upside down have quack up"
Confucius say, "woman who fly upside down have crack up"

Now, the real scoop:

Confucius
Ancestral name:
(姓) Zi¹ (子)
(Pinyin: Zǐ)
Clan name:
(氏) Kong (孔)
(Pinyin: Kǒng)
Given name:
(名) Qiu (丘)
(Pinyin: Qiū)
Courtesy name:
(字) Zhongni (仲尼)
(Pinyin: Zhòngní)
Posthumous name:
(謚) The Ultimate Sage
Master of Yore²
(Ch: 至聖先師 ;
Py: Zhìshèng Xiānshī)
Styled: Master Kong³
(Ch: 孔子,
less frequently 孔夫子;
Py: Kǒngzǐ, less fr.
Kǒngfūzǐ;
WG: K'ung-tzu, less fr.
K'ung Fu-tzu)
1This Chinese word (子), the ancestral name of
Confucius, should not be confused with the word
"master" as used in the style of Confucius "Master
Kong" (孔子). These are two different words written
with the same character in Chinese. Zi was the
surname of the ruling family of Shang.

2 Posthumous name since 1530. Between 1307
and 1530, his posthumous name was: "The Lord
of Culture Ultimate Sage and Great
Accomplisher" (大成至聖文宣王) which is
the name on his tomb.

3 Romanised as "Confucius".
Confucius (Chinese 孔夫子, transliterated Kong Fuzi or K'ung-fu-tzu, literally "Master Kong", traditionally September 28, 551 – 479 BC) was a famous Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy deeply influenced East Asian life and thought.

His philosophy emphasised personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. These values gained prominence in China over other doctrines, such as Legalism or Daoism during the Han Dynasty. Confucius' thoughts have been developed into a system of philosophy known as Confucianism. It was introduced to Europe by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci, who was the first to Latinise the name as "Confucius".

His teachings are known primarily through the Analects of Confucius, a short collection of his discussions with his disciples, which was compiled posthumously.

Contents [hide]
1 Personal life and family
2 Teachings
3 Names
4 Philosophy
4.1 Ethics
4.2 Politics
5 Disciples
6 Home town
7 See also
8 Further reading
9 External links



[edit]
Personal life and family
At 15, I set my mind upon learning;
At 30, I took my stand;
At 40, I no longer had doubts;
At 50, I knew the will of the heavens;
At 60, my ear was attuned;
At 70, I follow all the desires of my heart without breaking any rule.
(Analects, translation by James Legge)
According to tradition, Confucius was born in 551 BCE (during the Spring and Autumn Period, at the beginning of the Hundred Schools of Thought philosophical movement) in the city of Qufu, which was located in the Chinese State of Lu (now part of present-day Shandong Province and culturally and geographically close to the royal mansion of Zhou). He was born into a deposed noble family which had recently fled from the State of Song.

The Records of the Grand Historian (史記), compiled some 400 years later, indicate that Confucius was conceived out of wedlock (野合). His father was seventy, and his mother only fifteen at his birth. His father died when he was three, and he was brought up in poverty by his mother. His social ascendancy links him to the growing class of Shì (士), a class between the old nobility and the common people. This class later became the prominent class of literati because of the cultural and intellectual skills they shared.

As a child, he was said to have enjoyed putting ritual vases on the sacrifice table. As a young man, he was a minor administrative manager in the State of Lu and rose to the position of Justice Minister. After several years he resigned because he disapproved of the politics of his Prince. Around age fifty, seeing no way to improve the government, he gave up his political career in Lu, and began a 12-year journey around China. He sought the "Way" and tried unsuccessfully to convince many different rulers of his political beliefs and to push them into reality. When he was about 60, he returned home and spent the last years of his life teaching an increasing number of disciples by sharing his experiences with them and transmitting the old wisdom via a set of books called the Five Classics.[citation needed]

When Confucius held the post of the highest officer in Lu, he issued an arrest and execution order for Shao-Zheng-Mao (少正卯), a respected person in Lu. The warrant gave five vague reasons:

Having a recalcitrant mind (心逆而险)
Alienating himself and refusing changes (行辟而坚)
Enjoying specious arguments (言伪而辩)
Broadcasting others' faults (记丑而博)
Supporting and profiting from others' bad deeds (顺非而泽)
This has been interpreted as an act of judicial murder, an accusation which has been denied by Confucius' admirers.

The King of Lu was unhappy at this abuse of power, and during an annual ritual, he refused to distribute the sacred meat to Confucius, a strong indication of disapproval. In fact, Confucius was forced into exile from Lu after these accusations. During his exile (called “touring the kingdoms” (Traditional Chinese: 周遊列國; Simplified Chinese: 周游列国; Pinyin: zhōuyóu lièguó) in Confucianism), Confucius was not widely welcomed; some kingdoms even forbade him to cross their borders.

Confucius' descendants were repeatedly identified and honored by successive imperial governments. They were honored with the rank of a marquis thirty-five times since Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, and they were promoted to the rank of duke forty-two times from the Tang Dynasty to 1935. One of the most common titles is Duke Yansheng (衍聖公 Yǎnshèng gōng), which means "overflowing with sainthood."

Today, there are thousands of reputed descendants of Confucius. The main lineage fled from the Kong ancestral home in Qufu to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War. The latest head of the household is K'ung Te-ch'eng who is of the 77th generation and a professor at National Taiwan University. The Republic of China appointed him President of the Examination Yuan. Kung married Sun Qifang, the great-granddaughter of the Qing dynasty scholar-official and first president of Beijing University Sun Jianai, whose Shouxian, Anhui, family created one of the first business combines in modern-day China, which included the largest flour mill in Asia, the Fou Foong Flour Company 福豐麵粉廠. The Kongs are related by marriage to a number of prominent Confucian families, among them that of the Song Dynasty prime minister and martyr Wen Tianxiang.[citation needed]

[edit]
Teachings
In the Analects, Confucius presents himself as a "transmitter who invented nothing". He put the greatest emphasis on the importance of study, and it is the Chinese character for study (å­¸) that opens the text. In this respect, he is seen by Chinese people as the Greatest Master. Far from trying to build a systematic theory of life and society, he wanted his disciples to think deeply for themselves and relentlessly study the outside world, mostly through the old scriptures and by relating past political events (like the Annals) or past feelings of common people (like the Book of Odes).

In times of division, chaos, and endless wars between feudal states, he wanted to restore the Mandate of Heaven that could unify the "world" (i.e., China) and bestow peace and prosperity on the people. Therefore, Confucius is often considered a great proponent of conservatism, but a closer look at what he proposes often shows that he used (and maybe twisted) past institutions and rites to push a new political agenda of his own: rulers to be chosen on merit, not parentage, rulers who were devoted to their people, and rulers who reached for perfection. Such a ruler would spread his own virtues to the people instead of imposing proper behavior with laws and rules.

One of the deepest teachings of Confucius, one of the hardest to understand from a Western point of view, may have been the superiority of exemplification over explicit rules of behavior. His ethics may be considered one of the greatest virtue ethics. This kind of "indirect" way to achieve a goal is used widely in his teachings by way of allusions, innuendo, and even tautology. This is why his teachings need to be examined and put into context for access by Westerners. A good example is found in this famous anecdote:

When the stables were burnt down, on returning from court, Confucius said, "Was anyone hurt?" He did not ask about the horses.
Analects X.11, tr. A. Waley
The anecdote is not long, but it is of paramount importance. In his time horses were perhaps 10 times more expensive than stablemen. By not asking about the horses, Confucius demonstrated his greatest priority: human beings. Thus, according to many Eastern and Western commentators, Confucius' teaching can be considered a Chinese variant of humanism.

Confucius also heavily emphasised what he calls "rites and music," referring to these social conventions as two poles to balance order and harmony. While rites, in short, show off social hierarchies, music unifies hearts in shared enjoyment. He added that rites are not only ways to arrange sacrificial tools, and music is not only the sound of sticks on a bell. Both are communications between someone's humanity and his social context; both feed social relationships, such as the five prototypes: between father and son, husband and wife, prince and subject, elder and youngster, and friend and friend. Duties are always balanced, and if a subject must obey his ruler, the subject must tell the ruler when he is wrong.

Confucius' teachings were later turned into a corps de doctrine by his numerous disciples and followers. In the centuries after his death, Mencius and Xun Zi both wrote a prominent book on it, and in time, a philosophy was elaborated, which is known in the West as Confucianism.

[edit]
Names

Confucius, illustrated in Myths & Legends of China, 1922, by E.T.C. WernerThe Jesuits, while translating Chinese books into Western languages, translated 孔夫子 as Confucius. This Latinised form has since been commonly used in Western countries.
In systematic Romanisations:
Kǒng Fūzǐ (or Kǒng fū zǐ) in pinyin.
K'ung fu-tze in Wade-Giles (or, less accurately, Kung fu-tze).
Fūzǐ means teacher. Since it was disrespectful to call the teacher by name according to Chinese culture, he is known as just "Master Kong", or Confucius, even in modern days.
The character 'fu' is optional, so he is commonly also known as Kong Zi.
His actual name was 孔丘, Kǒng Qiū. Kǒng is a common family name in China.
His courtesy name was 仲尼, Zhòng Ní.
In 1 AD (first year of the Yuanshi period of the Han Dynasty), he was given his first posthumous name: 褒成宣尼公, Lord Bāochéngxūan, which means "Laudably Declarable Lord Ni."
His most popular posthumous names are
至聖先師, Zhìshèngxiānshī, meaning "The Former Teacher who Arrived at Sagehood" (comes from 1530, the ninth year of the Jianing period of the Ming Dynasty);
至聖, Zhìshèng, "the Greatest Sage";
先師, Xiānshī, "the First Teacher".
He is also commonly known as 萬世師表, Wànshìshībiǎo, "the Model Teacher of a Myriad Ages" in Taiwan.
[edit]
Philosophy
Main article: Confucianism
Although Confucianism is often followed in a religious manner by the Chinese, arguments continue over whether it is a religion, because it makes little reference to theological or spiritual matters (god(s), the afterlife, etc.).

Confucius' principles gained wide acceptance primarily because of their basis in common Chinese opinion. He championed strong familial loyalty, ancestor worship, respect of elders by their children and of husbands by their wives, and the family as a basis for an ideal government. He expressed the well-known principle, "Do not to others what you do not want done to yourself" (similar to the Golden Rule). He also looked nostalgically upon earlier days, and urged the Chinese, particularly the politicians, to model themselves on earlier examples.

[edit]
Ethics
The Confucian theory of ethics is based on three important concepts:

While Confucius grew up, lǐ (礼 [禮]) referred to the three aspects of life: sacrificing to the gods, social and political institutions, and daily behavior. It was believed that lǐ originated from the heavens. Confucius argued that it flowed not from heaven but from humanity. He redefined lǐ to refer to all actions committed by a person to build the ideal society. Lǐ, to Confucius, became every action by a person aiming to meet his surface desires. These can be either good or bad. Generally attempts to obtain short term pleasure are bad while those, which in the long term try to make one's life better, are generally good. These concepts are about doing the proper thing at the proper time.

To Confucius, yì (义 [義]) was the origin of lǐ. Yì can best be translated as righteousness. While doing things because of lǐ, one's own self-interest was not necessarily bad, one would be a better, more righteous person if one bases one's life upon following yì. This means that rather than pursuing one's own selfish interests, one should do what is right and moral. It is doing the right thing for the right reason. Yì is based upon reciprocity. An example of living by yì is how one must mourn one's father and mother for three years after their death. Since they took care of the child for the first three years of one's life, one must reciprocate by living in mourning for three years.

Just as lǐ flows out of yì, so yì flows out of rén (仁). Ren can best be translated as kindness. His moral system was based upon empathy and understanding others, rather than divinely ordained rules. To live by rén was even better than living by the rules of yì. To live by rén one used another Confucian version of the Golden Rule: he argued that one must always treat others just as one would want others to treat you. Virtue under Confucius is based upon harmony with other people.

He applied an early version of the Golden Rule: "What one does not wish for oneself, one ought not to do to anyone else; what one recognises as desirable for oneself, one ought to be willing to grant to others." (Confucius and Confucianism, Richard Wilhelm)

[edit]
Politics
Confucius' political thought is based upon his ethical thought. He argues that the best government is one that rules through "rites" and people's natural morality, rather than using bribery and force. He explained that this in one of the most important analects: 1. "If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good." (Translated by James Legge)[citation needed] This "sense of shame" is an internalisation of duty, where the punishment precedes the evil action, instead of following it in the form of laws as in Legalism.

While he supported the idea of the all-powerful Emperor, probably because of the chaotic state of China at his time, his philosophies contained a number of elements to limit the power of the rulers. He argued for according language with truth; thus honesty was of the most paramount importance. Even in facial expression, truth must always be represented. In discussing the relationship between a subject and his king (or a son and his father), he underlined the need to give due respect to superiors. This demanded that the inferior must give advice to his superior if the superior was considered to be taking the wrong course of action. This was built upon by his disciple Mencius to argue that if the king was not acting like a king, he would lose the Mandate of Heaven and be overthrown. Therefore, tyrannicide is justified because a tyrant is more a thief than a king. Attempted tyrannicide, however, is not justified.

[edit]
Disciples

Popular image of Confucius as an object of veneration, Thian Hock Keng temple, Singapore.See main article : Disciples of Confucius

Confucius' disciples and only grandson, Zisi, continued his philosophical school after his death. While relying heavily on Confucius' ethico-political system, two of his most famous disciples emphasized radically different aspects of his teachings. Mencius articulated the infinite goodness inherent in humanity, while Xun Zi underscored the realistic and materialistic aspects of Confucian thought.

[edit]
Home town
Soon after Confucius' death, Qufu, his hometown, became a place of devotion and remembrance. It is still a major destination for cultural tourism, and many Chinese people visit his grave and the surrounding temples. In China, there are many temples where representations of Buddha, Lao Zi and Confucius are found together. There are also many temples dedicated to him, which have been used for Confucianist ceremonies.