Spartans Vs Greece

According to tradition, Confucius was born in 551 BC. Spring and Autumn Period, at the beginning of the Hundred Schools of Thought philosophical movement. Confucius was born in or near the city of Qufu, in the Chinese State of Lu (now part of Shandong Province). Early accounts say that he was born into a noble family that had fallen on hard times and had become quite poor.[9]

The Records of the Grand Historian (史記), compiled some four centuries later, indicate that the marriage of Confucius' parents did not conform to Li (禮) and therefore was a yehe (野合), or "illicit union",[10] for when they got married, his father was a very old man and past proper age for marriage but his mother only in her late teens. His father died when he was three,[11] and he was brought up in poverty by his mother. His social ascendancy linked him to the growing class of shÐ"¬ (士), a class whose status lay between that of the old nobility and the common people, comprised of men who sought social position on the basis of talents and skills, rather than heredity.

As a child, Confucius was said to have enjoyed putting ritual vases on the sacrifice table.[10] He married a young girl named Qi Quan (亓官) at nineteen and she had their first child Kong Li (孔鯉) when he was twenty. Confucius is reported to have worked as a shepherd, cowherd, clerk and book-keeper.[12] When Confucius was twenty-three, his mother died and he entered three years of mourning.

He is said to have risen to the position of Justice Minister (大司寇) in Lu at fifty-three.[13] According to the Records of the Grand Historian, the neighboring state of Qi (齊) was worried that Lu was becoming too powerful. Qi decided to sabotage Lu's reforms by sending one hundred good horses and eighty beautiful dancing girls to the Duke of Lu. The Duke indulged himself in pleasure and did not attend to official duties for three days. Confucius was deeply disappointed and resolved to leave Lu and seek better opportunities. Yet to leave at once would expose the misbehavior of the Duke and therefore bring public humiliation to the ruler Confucius was serving, so Confucius waited for the Duke to make a lesser mistake. Soon after, the Duke neglected to send to Confucius a portion of the sacrificial meat that was his due according to custom, and Confucius seized this pretext to leave both his post and the state of Lu.[10][14]

While some early sources picture the state of Lu as well regulated, due, in part, to the wise administration of Confucius[citation needed], many scholars think this is unlikely, and hold that Confucius in fact never held any major position, either in Lu or anywhere else.

According to tradition, after Confucius's resignation, he began a long journey (or set of journeys) around the small kingdoms of northeast and central China, including the states of Wei (魏), Song (宋), Chen (陳) and Cai (蔡).[15] At the courts of these states, he espoused his political beliefs but did not see them implemented.

According to the Zuo Commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals, at sixty-eight[13] Confucius returned home. The Analects pictures him spending his last years teaching disciples and transmitting the old wisdom via a set of texts called the Five Classics.[16][17]

Burdened by the loss of both his son and his favorite disciples,[18][19] he died at the age of 72 (or 73).[20]

[edit] Teachings

In the Analects论语, Confucius presents himself as a "transmitter who invented nothing".[7] He put the greatest emphasis on the importance of study,[21][22] and it is the Chinese character for study (or learning) that opens the text. In this respect, he is seen by Chinese people as the Greatest Master.[23] Far from trying to build a systematic theory of life and society or establish a formalism of rites, he wanted his disciples to think deeply for themselves and relentlessly study the outside world,[24] mostly through the old scriptures and by relating the moral problems of the present to past political events (like the Annals) or past expressions of feelings by common people and reflective members of the elite (preserved in the poems of the Book of Odes[25]).[26]

In times of division, chaos, and endless wars between feudal states, he wanted to restore the Mandate of Heaven "天命" that could unify the "world" (i.e. China) and bestow peace and prosperity on the people.[27] Because his vision of personal and social perfections was framed as a revival of the ordered society of earlier times, Confucius is often considered a great proponent of conservatism, but a closer look at what he proposes often shows that he used (and perhaps twisted) past institutions and rites to push a new political agenda of his own: a revival of a unified royal state, whose rulers would succeed to power on the basis of their moral merit, not their parentage;[28][29] these would be rulers devoted to their people, reaching for personal and social perfection.[30] Such a ruler would spread his own virtues to the people instead of imposing proper behavior with laws and rules.[31]

One of the deepest teachings of Confucius may have been the superiority of personal exemplification over explicit rules of behavior. Because his moral teachings emphasise self-cultivation, emulation of moral exemplars, and the attainment of skilled judgment rather than knowledge of rules, Confucius's ethics may be considered a type of virtue ethics. His teachings rarely rely on reasoned argument, and ethical ideals and methods are conveyed more indirectly, through allusions, innuendo, and even tautology. This is why his teachings need to be examined and put into proper context in order to be understood.[32][33] A good example is found in this famous anecdote:

厩焚。子退朝，曰："伤人乎？"不问马。

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[citation needed]. The passage conveys the lesson that by not asking about the horses, Confucius demonstrated that a sage values human beings over property; readers of this lesson are led to reflect on whether their response would