50 Fun Facts About Confucianism

What is the closest Chinese catch-all term for Confucianism?

Its modern meanings include 'scholar' or 'refined man'; some scholars prefer 'Ruism' for the tradition.

Which Confucian virtue is usually translated 'benevolence' or 'humaneness'?

Its character combines the signs for 'person' and 'two', pointing to relationships between people.

The character for ren is a composite of 'person' and which numeral?

The pairing is read as humaneness expressed between people.

Which Confucian virtue means 'propriety' or 'rites'?

Ren is cultivated through the observance of proper ritual, li.

Han Confucians grouped ren, yi, li, zhi and xin under what collective name?

They are ren, yi, li, zhi and xin.

What does the Chinese word tian, central to Confucian thought, mean?

Confucianism upholds tian as a transcendent moral order rather than an omnipotent deity.

The Confucian ideal of the junzi literally means what?

Confucius redefined it as a person of noble character that anyone could become.

Which Chinese character, xiao, names the virtue of respect for parents and ancestors?

The Classic of Filial Piety has long been the authoritative text on it.

How many exemplary cases appear in the famous collection titled Ershisi Xiao?

The tales were used for centuries to teach children their duties.

Confucius described himself as a what, 'who invented nothing'?

He claimed to pass on the values of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.

The name 'Confucius' is a Latinised form coined in the late 16th century by whom?

It renders Kongfuzi, 'Great Master Kong'; he was born Kong Qiu.

In which modern city, then the state of Lu, is Confucius thought to have been born?

The date is traditionally given as 28 September 551 BCE.

Confucius is said to have taught 3,000 pupils, of whom how many mastered the Six Arts?

The Shiji gives the figure; Yan Hui was the most beloved of them.

'Do not do unto others what you do not want done to yourself' is sometimes called what?

'Do not do unto others what you do not want done to yourself.'

The Analects reached its final form during which dynasty?

Large portions were composed in the Warring States period; early Han scholars treated it as a mere commentary on the Five Classics.

The lost sixth classic, which vanished under the Han, dealt with what subject?

It disappeared during the Han dynasty; music was the internal key and rites the external key to harmony.

Which of the Five Classics is held to be the earliest, mixing divination and ethics?

The Book of Changes sees the cosmos as the interaction of yin and yang.

The Spring and Autumn Annals chronicles its period from the perspective of which state?

Lu was Confucius's home state; the period runs 771–481 BC.

Which Song-dynasty scholar selected the Four Books as the entry to Confucian thought?

His commentaries became accepted as the authentic meaning of Confucius himself.

The Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean were originally chapters of which classic?

The Doctrine of the Mean is attributed to Confucius's grandson Zisi.

Mencius is traditionally honoured with which title relative to Confucius?

Born Meng Ke in the state of Zou, he lived c. 371–289 BC.

What did Mencius hold about human nature?

He illustrated it with a child about to fall down a well: anyone would feel alarm.

Which Confucian philosopher held, against Mencius, that human nature is evil?

His reputation suffered from the Tang dynasty on; his students Han Fei and Li Si became Legalists.

Which two famous Legalists had been students of Xunzi?

Li Si became chancellor to the First Emperor of Qin.

Mencius argued subjects may do what to a ruler who ignores the people's needs?

Of the wicked King Zhou of Shang he said he had heard of killing a villain, not murdering a ruler.

Mencius used the image of a child falling down what to prove innate goodness?

The instinctive alarm any observer feels is one of his Four Beginnings.

Under which dynasty was Confucianism suppressed by Legalist rulers?

It flourished again under the Han from around 130 BCE.

Which Han Confucian synthesised the tradition with yin-yang and the five phases?

His Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals even suggests a more equal marriage.

Which imperial librarian edited the Five Classics into their received versions?

That was around 500 years after Confucius.

Neo-Confucianism is literally the 'School of' what?

Lixue dominated Chinese philosophy from the 13th to the 19th century.

Zhu Xi belonged to which dominant Neo-Confucian school, named for him and two brothers?

The rival Lu–Wang school was led by Wang Yangming and Lu Xiangshan.

Neo-Confucianism arose partly as a response to the influence of which two traditions?

It sought a more rationalist Confucianism by rejecting their mystical elements.

Which Ming-era Confucian promoted individuality and independent thinking?

He led the Lu–Wang school against the Cheng–Zhu orthodoxy.

The first earnest use of written exams to recruit officials came under which dynasty?

The Sui ruled 581–618; the system then lasted 1,300 years.

In which year was China's imperial examination system abolished?

Korea had ended its exams in 1894 and Vietnam followed in 1919.

What was the highest degree in the imperial examinations?

Under the Ming it became essential for the highest offices.

Ming and Qing exam answers had to follow a rigid form known as what?

Its eight parts ran from opening and amplification to final argument and conclusion.

Which rebellion was led by a failed examination candidate, Hong Xiuquan?

His Taiping Heavenly Kingdom set up its capital in Nanjing in 1851.

A Qing-era cheat sheet in a Minneapolis museum is a handkerchief with how many characters?

The Confucian classics were written on it in microscopically small hand.

In which Shandong city stands the largest temple of Confucius in East Asia?

It covers 16,000 square metres and has 460 rooms.

Which building in the Qufu temple was the principal place for sacrifices to Confucius?

Its name means 'Great Perfection'; the present hall dates from the Qing dynasty.

In which year did the Qufu temple, cemetery and Kong mansion join the UNESCO list?

The cemetery holds more than 100,000 graves of Kong descendants across 183 hectares.

A national Confucian Church was established in China in which year?

The idea goes back to the Qing reformer Kang Youwei.

Confucius's birthday, 28 September, was made a Chinese public holiday in which year?

The date had previously been designated Teachers' Day.

Which American philosopher described Confucianism as regarding 'the secular as sacred'?

The phrase is the title of his 1972 study of Confucius.

Which pejorative term, 'Confucius's family's business', did the New Culture Movement use?

It was revived as an insult during the Cultural Revolution.

Which Jesuit was among the earliest Europeans to report on the thoughts of Confucius?

Intorcetta later wrote a Latin life of Confucius in 1687.

The Korean expression for the Confucian canon is 'Four Books and how many Classics'?

China's own formula is the Four Books and Five Classics.

The Confucian code for women was the Three Obediences and how many Virtues?

Critics accuse Zhu Xi of holding that men and women must be kept strictly separate.

Which Zhou concept replaced the Shang claim of descent from Shangdi as a basis for rule?

A ruler with the Mandate leads by moral example and can lose it through misrule.