Confucius

Confucius tied the knot with Qiguan when he was 19 years old and a year later they were blessed with a child whom they named, Kong Li. Later he was blessed with two more children - daughters. One of her daughters is thought to have died early in her life as a child. It is believed that he did not have cordial relations with his wife and children.

He stayed in exile for approximately 12 years. The talk about him being a man of vision kept building. Zuo Zhuan states that he returned to Lu when he was 68 with the aim of preserving and teaching his classical traditions through writing and editing.

He left for heavenly abode at the age of 73 in 479 B.C. If “Records of the Historian” is to be believed, he had around 3,000 followers and approximately 72 of his students were able to have a command on the “six arts” that were mastered by Confucius.

It is believed that Confucius was born in Zou, Lu state (near present-day Qufu, Shandong Province) in 551 B.C. According to Chinese tradition, his ancestors had migrated from the Song state to the Lu state and Confucius was a descendant of the Shang dynasty Kings.

At that time a class structure was prevalent in ancient China. Confucius belonged to Shi Class that was ranked between old nobility and the common people. People belonging to this class sought social position as per their skills and talents.

His father’s name was Kong He (aka Shuliang He) and he was an officer in the Lu Military. It is said that his father had divorced his first wife as she had given birth to two daughters and a disfigured son. Yan, Confucius’ mother, was his second wife.

At the age of 3 in 548 B.C he lost his father and was brought up by his mother Yan Zhengzai under difficult financial conditions.

At the age of 23 he lost his mother and as per the prevalent tradition, he spent 3 years in mourning.

He was the first teacher in China whose aim was to make education available for all. In his 30s (around 519 B.C), he adopted teaching as a career in order to fulfill his aspiration of making teaching a vocation. His command on six arts namely calligraphy, ritual, charioteering, arithmetic, music and archery and his knowledge about history, classical traditions and poetry aided him in this.

It was in 501 B.C or when he was in his late 40s that he stepped into politics and was appointed the governor of a town in Lu state. At that time this was considered to be a minor position. He then served as minister of public works. However, he eventually became the “Minister of Crime” in Lu state.

The Lu state was headed by a ruling ducal house and there were three aristocratic families under the duke, whose heads held hereditary positions in the Lu bureaucracy. Confucius wanted to return the authority of the state to the duke and establish a centralized government. This was not possible without dismantling the fortifications of the city-strongholds belonging to the three aristocratic families.

He achieved considerable success in his plan but could not achieve the reforms that were aimed at restoration of the legitimate rule of the duke. In the process, he had made powerful enemies within the state.

He is believed to have departed his homeland in 497 BC after his support for the failed attempt of dismantling the fortified city walls of the powerful Ji, Meng, and Shu families. He left the state of Lu without resigning, and did not return as long as Viscount Ji Huan was alive.

It is often considered and followed in a very religious manner by Chinese but there is a debate about its religious character – many don’t consider it religious and find its character quite secular. Though it talks about elements of the afterlife and has views concerning Heaven but it is somewhat indifferent to some spiritual matters which are generally considered crucial to religious thought.