2. • The name "Confucius" is a Latinized
form of the Mandarin Chinese Kǒng
Fūzǐ
• Born on September 28, 551 BC during
the Zhou dynasty
• Worked as a bookkeeper but later on
became a teacher.
• Became an influential philosopher,
politician, and educator during the
tumultuous period of Chinese history
Confucius (551 - 479 BCE)
3. • A philosophy and belief system from ancient China, which laid the
foundation for much of Chinese culture.
• Developed from the teachings of Confucius and his disciples:
Mencius and Hzun Tzu.
4. • Has influenced the Chinese
attitude toward life, set the
patterns of living and standards
of social value and provided the
background for Chinese political
theories and institutions.
• Also known as Ruism,
Confucianism is regarded as a
religion, tradition, teaching or an
ideology.
5. • Man is the center of the universe; man cannot live alone, but
with other human beings. The necessary condition to
achieve happiness is through peace.
• To obtain peace, Confucius discovered human relations
consisting of the five relationships which are based on love
and duties; and the great unity of the world should be
develop.
6. Five Relationships
Relationship Appropriate Virtue
Father - Son Filial Piety
Ruler - Subject Loyalty
Brother - Brother Brotherliness
Husband - Wife Love and Obedience
Friend - Friend Faithfulness
7. Five Main Virtues
Wu Chang (五常)
• Benevolence or ren (仁)
• Righteousness or yi (义)
• Propriety or li (理)
• Wisdom or zhi (智)
• Fidelity or xin (信)
8. Confucian Education
• Confucius’ view of education is based on the
conviction that “Man is born with
uprightness.” Even immoral persons have an
upright essence. So, Confucius believed that
“By nature men are alike.”
• Thus, he established education and self-
cultivation as the way individuals to overcome
individual contention and gain self-discipline.
9. Confucian Education
• Revolutionized education by providing
education to all. According to him, education
has no class distinction.
• Means of transformation, the discovery of
human nature, and the cultivation of character.
Through education, virtues are developed and
integrated.
10. Confucian Education
• Insisted that one’s cultivation of character must
involve extending virtues to others.
“Now the man of perfect virtue, wishing to be
establishing himself, seeks also to establish
others; wishing to be enlarging himself, he seeks
to enlarge other.” (Analects, 6:28)
11. Confucian Education
• Insisted that one’s cultivation of character must
involve extending virtues to others.
“Now the man of perfect virtue, wishing to be
establishing himself, seeks also to establish
others; wishing to be enlarging himself, he seeks
to enlarge other.” (Analects, 6:28)
12. Learning, for Confucians, has two purposes.
The first is to learn to be an upright, moral person.
This purpose is the ideal of a getleman or a
superior person. After the gentleman has
cultivated virtues and elevated his character, it is
then considered possible for him to apply what
he has learned. To serve the people and the state
is the ultimate purpose of learning and a moral
obligation of a true gentleman.
13. Sources of Confucian Philosophy
Confucius claimed to derive his teachings
from “the Ancients,” whose wisdom is
embodied in “The Five Classics” (Wu Jing)
• The I Jing (“Book of Changes”)
• The Shu Jing (“Book of History”)
• The Shih Jing (“Book of Odes”
[poetry])
• The Li Ji (“Book of Rites”)
• The Ch’un-ch’iu (“Spring & Autumn
Annals”)
14. • Analects (Lun-Yu)
• The Doctrine of the Mean
(Zhongyong)
• The Great Learning (Ta-hsueh)
• The Book of Meng-Tzu
The Four Books” (Ssu-chu)
15. “What you do not wish for yourself, do not do
to others.” (Analects 12.2, 6.30)
“If a man in the morning hears the right way, he
may die in the evening without regret.”
