Confucianism 

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Founder:

 

K’ung Ch’iu /K’ung Futzu but Confucius is the Latinised version of the name, very often called Kongzi. Confucius was a young contemporary of Lao Tzu (a philosopher and poet of ancient China.) By the age of 19, Confucius was well educated; he mastered the 6 arts (ritual, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and arithmetic.) He traveled from state to state teaching the sons of the nobility about leadership and morality, and is now famous for using his intellect to try and create stability, with 3 Chinese aristocrat parties, in order to have a centralized government. Confucius said that citizens must be good and should respect and honor their parents and ancestors, although he understood social disorder as proof that humans had lost a once-harmonious relationship with Tian and its Tao (Way), the source of all life and order in the universe. His students and their followers later shaped Kongzi's teachings and view of the Chinese past into what became Confucianism. He was born in the Chinese province of Lu in 551 BCE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Key figures:

 

Mengzi was one of the most influential early Confucian thinkers after Kongzi's time. He developed a theory of human nature that eventually was accepted by most Confucians. For Mengzi, the journey toward morality begins with birth as a being that naturally is or pointed toward goodness (Ren). Mengzi's theory of human nature became the basis for most Confucian moral psychology, prior to the Han dynasty.

 

Xunzi supported the theory that found most approval with Confucians. Xunzi questioned many of Mengzi's teachings, especially his claim that humans are born being prone toward Ren. He believed that humans were born towards selfishness and disorderly behaviour, despite that they both taught that humans were able to find moral perfection.