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Confucius and Confucianism Essay

Decent Essays

One of the most famous people in ancient China was a wise philosopher named Confucius (circa

551-479 BC). He was a great Chinese philosopher, educator, and political figure. His teachings and

proverbs are in the Analects, which is the base of many Chinese theories. He was born

in the village of Zou, and the state of Lu. His father died three years after Confucius' birth leaving the

family in destitution, but Confucius did have a decent education. He was married at the age of 19 and had

one son and two daughters.

He worked as a keeper of a market. Then he was a farm worker who took care of parks and farm

animals. When he was 20, he worked for the governor of his province. After a while he decided to …show more content…

Confucius had, however, never gotten a chance to put his theories to a public test until he was

appointed magistrate of Chung-tu, at the age of 52. The very next year he became the minister of crime of

the state of Lu. His control was successful, reforms were introduced, justice was fairly distributed, and

crime was lowered greatly. Lu become very powerful. Many other people were jealous and envied all the

great changes Confucius had been able to make in such a short time. A highranking ruler of a neighboring

state made sure that Confucius got dismissed. Confucius left his office in 496 BC, traveling about and

teaching, helplessly hoping that some other noble would allow him to undertake measures of reform. In 484

BC, after a failed search for an ideal ruler, he returned for the last time to Lu. Confucius was then abandoned from his province and he wandered about China for 13 years.

When Confucius was 69 years old, her returned to his home state, and he died there 3 years after settling

in Lu - 479 BC.

Yet, when the philosopher died, many people honored all of Confucius' work by building temples

in every city in China to honor Confucius. Since Confucius' teachings and philosophy was so advanced, it

was the education for China for 2,000 years. Confucius had few simple morals, to honor one?s parents and

ancestors, to do what is right rather than what is of

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