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551 BCE–479 BCE

the great Chinese philosopher

He who learns but does not think is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger. Real knowledge is understanding that we actually know very little.

I was born a very long time ago – the story of my life was not written down until a long time after my death, so many of the facts are uncertain. But here I will tell you what was believed about my life and the events that shaped my thinking. I was born in China in the summer of 551 BCE – nobody can agree on the exact date and naturally I was too young to remember it myself. I was born in the village of Zou, in the state of Lu, near present-day Qufu in Shandong Province. My father was from an aristocratic family of warriors – brave, experienced fighters – and he died when I was three years old. This is not surprising when you know that he was about forty years older than my mother. Despite his family background, my father left us little money – the family had lost their fortune some time before – and we were often hungry. In Shandong Province, the winters were extremely cold, and just staying alive was difficult at times. I managed to bring in some money by working as a shepherd – looking after sheep – and I also took care of a local farmer’s cows, so we did not starve.

My mother did her best to educate me and she taught me many fine lessons about life. The hours I spent with the animals gave me the chance to think about life and what made it good. I asked myself about how we should live, what was fair and unfair and how people should live together. As I grew older and became a teenager, these questions became all the more important to me. When I was 19 years old, I met a girl called Qi Guan. Within a short time we had got married and by the time I was 20, we had started our family. After the birth of our son, King Li, we went on to have two more children but our marriage was not a happy one. When I was 23, my mother died which affected me deeply for the next three years.

After my mother’s death, I started studying philosophy. Already, one of my ‘life’ questions had been answered – as a family we learnt to understand each other’s emotional needs. However, as I had a wife and children and all the extra costs that came with a family, I had to make sure that our practical needs were met as well as our emotional ones. I needed to make some more money. Because I could read and write, and many people at that time could not, I found a job as a clerk – keeping records and doing the accounts – for the Duke of Lu, the ruler of the state.

Lu was a powerful man who spent every day making decisions about other people’s lives. Some people thought he was fair while others felt that he was against them. According to the way each person had been treated, I saw happiness, sadness and anger in their faces. Understanding how much we are affected by the things that people say and do, I developed my Golden Rule – you should not do to others what you would not like them to do to you. Each day at work, watching how people made decisions, I formed my views. The solutions to the questions that I asked myself were tried and tested each day and people came to respect me. I enjoyed working hard and I tried to be reliable, both of which were noted, and I was promoted.

I lived during what became known as the Spring and Autumn Period in Chinese history. The country consisted of many small states that were constantly fighting for power. Chinese society was going through many changes as traditional values were challenged. There was tension and stress all around me and I wanted to find a way in which we could live in harmony – a state of peaceful cooperation. I had very clear views on how people should behave towards each other. Everyone had a specific place in society and according to where they fitted in, they had different roles to play and had different duties that they were responsible for.

Taking this a step further, I believed that there were five different types of relationships in the world. The first was between ruler and subject – the person living under the authority of the ruler. The second was that between father and son. The third was between elder brother and younger brother. The fourth was between husband and wife, and the last was between friend and friend. Apart from the last type, all the others involved one person having authority over another. The person who was not in the superior position of authority had to obey and respect the person who was, and the one with all the power had a duty to be responsible for and kind to the other. In my language, I called this duty to be a loving person ren.

In 518 BCE, I left my job and spent my time reading and teaching. My aim was to encourage and motivate my students, not just to tell them what was right and wrong. It didn’t matter to me who my students were or what social class they belonged to, I just loved teaching. This was unusual because at that time, education was something only the rich had access to. My approach seemed to be popular because it wasn’t long before I had a large number of followers – people who supported me and believed in what I was saying. I decided to travel to the imperial capital of China, Lo-yang, so that I could learn about the customs and traditions of the empire. Then, in 517 BCE, when I had come back, the state of Lu was involved in war and I left again, along with the Duke of Lu, and went to a neighbouring state called Qi. Here I learnt about music. The next period of my life was spent with my followers and I was also a teacher.

At the age of 51 in 500 BCE, I became the Justice Minister of the state. This was a job that required balance between the law and politics and I saw myself not as an inventor of the law but a messenger of it. In each case I listened to, all the facts had to be collected, and then interpreted and applied. I believed that having a moral viewpoint, rather than just following the law, was vital. People would ask me if we needed laws. My answer was that if people always behaved well to each other, then that would be enough, and no, it was not necessary to have laws. But people can be greedy and unfair, wanting more than their fair share, in which case, society cannot function without laws.

China at the time of Confucius

Another one of my beliefs was that we should appreciate our ancestors because without them we would not be here. I thought that it was vital to show respect for our living elders and family members, because without them, we would be alone. For me, the basis of a strong community was helping others, in the hope that they would help you in return. Life is a series of choices, choices which can benefit some people and disadvantage others. But it can be difficult to put the needs of others before the things we ourselves want. I believed that one of the keys to happiness was to understand other people and their needs. Another key was to be virtuous and by that, I mean behaving in an honest and moral way.

However, it is much easier to be virtuous in thought than it is in practice. For example, nobody wants to find themselves in the position where they may lose other people’s respect. This may happen if you make a stupid mistake. To avoid looking stupid, we sometimes try to hide the mistake we made and in the process we make more mistakes. I always thought that it was better to be honest and admit making the first mistake. In this way, not only do we avoid making the original situation worse, but also we can learn and improve, and make fewer mistakes in the future. But to do this, you have to get to know yourself. Knowing yourself is the first step in understanding other people. Without this first step, you will not be able to live with other people in a calm and pleasant way.

As well as asking me about the necessity of laws, people around me were curious about religion. Did we need to have religion in our lives, they asked me. My answer was that I did not find religion logical. All religions have ideas of what is good and bad, and often the religious rules as to what is allowed and what is not allowed are not flexible enough. Society changes but these rules stay the same. Another aspect of religion that I had difficulty with was the existence of a god. Was it possible that there was one god only, and that this god had all the answers? I doubted it very much. What I didn’t doubt was the need for some kind of belief system, but I didn’t know what form it should take.

In contrast, I truly believed in democracy. At any one time, there can only be one ruler but it should be the people who decide who is going to govern. Cruel and unfair rulers can then be removed from power. I saw leadership as being a gift, not an absolute right, and I believed that the person given the honour of ruling should be a virtuous person at all times. If they do not behave in a correct, ethical way, then people will rebel and choose a new leader. I knew that this system would work well in a small place where everyone knew each other, but I was not sure if it could be applied to somewhere much larger. How could a ruler communicate his beliefs and rules in an area where great distances had to be covered? If his word was not widely known, how could it be supported? If a leader was not supported, he could not be respected, and without respect, his future was at risk.

A Chinese temple

Virtue, for me, was the all-important characteristic for a leader. If people were ruled by laws and were punished when they broke them, they would try to avoid the punishment but would not change their behaviour. However, if a ruler was a virtuous person and ruled by example, that is, by always behaving in a moral and ethical way, then people would change their ‘bad’ behaviour and would start to be virtuous, too, without needing to be punished.

I stayed in my position as Minister of Justice in the state of Qi for four years and in that time, I was promoted to Prime Minister, but due to serious political disagreements, in 495 BCE I decided to leave both my job and the state of Qi. I travelled, going from one region to another, always in the company of my followers. I talked to people wherever I went, hoping that some of my principles would be adopted by them. I was especially hopeful that rulers would lead their people based on a system of virtue, but I did not see many examples of this. In 483 BCE, I returned to the state of Lu and continued my teaching. In 479 BCE, when I was 72, I died. My followers treated me as if I had been their father, and as was the custom at the time, mourned me for three years. After my death, my followers started to write down some of my theories and they produced a publication now known as the Analects. My beliefs could now be taught by others to later generations of students. In this way, the philosophical school of thought, Confucianism, was born.