50 Fun Facts About Confucius

In which country did Confucius live and teach?

He lived during the Spring and Autumn period, roughly 551 to 479 BCE, in the state of Lu.

What was Confucius's birth name?

Qiu means hill, supposedly because of a dip in the top of his head; his courtesy name was Zhongni.

What is the collection of sayings attributed to Confucius, compiled by his followers, called?

Large parts were composed in the Warring States period, and it reached its final form in the mid-Han dynasty.

The name Confucius is a Latinised form of a Chinese title meaning what?

Jesuit missionaries coined it in the late 16th century; Chinese speakers today mostly say Kongzi, Master Kong.

Confucius's negative version of the maxim 'do unto others' is often known by what name?

Do not do unto others what you do not want done to yourself; the key word he gave was reciprocity.

In which modern Chinese province is Qufu, Confucius's birthplace and burial place?

His temple, cemetery and family mansion there are collectively a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

How old was Confucius when his father, a garrison commandant, died?

His mother Yan Zhengzai raised him in poverty and herself died before the age of 40.

Which of these jobs is Confucius said to have held as a young man to pay for his mother's burial?

He also worked as a bookkeeper, then mourned his mother for the traditional three years at age 23.

Confucius was born into which social class, between the aristocracy and the commoners?

He was educated at schools for commoners, where he learned the Six Arts.

In which state, ruled from Qufu, was Confucius born and did he later hold office?

Three hereditary families, the Ji, Meng and Shu, dominated its ducal government.

To which senior post did Confucius eventually rise in the government of Lu?

He was first appointed governor of a town in 501 BCE after Yang Hu's rebellion had been put down.

What did Confucius urge Lu's three powerful families to do to restore the duke's authority?

The Shu and Ji families complied; the Meng family's governor refused and the plan collapsed.

Per the Shiji, what did Qi send the duke of Lu to distract him from Confucius's reforms?

The duke neglected his duties for three days; Confucius left when he was later denied his share of sacrificial meat.

What breach of custom did Confucius seize on as the pretext for finally leaving his post in Lu?

He wanted an excuse that would not publicly humiliate the duke he was serving.

How old was Confucius when he was invited back to Lu after his years of wandering?

Ji Kangzi, the chief minister, issued the invitation, and Confucius spent his last years teaching.

According to the Shiji, how many pupils did Confucius teach in his lifetime?

Of these, 72 or 77 were counted as accomplished disciples who mastered the Six Arts.

What symbolic payment did Confucius ask of prospective students in place of tuition?

He accepted noblemen, commoners and even former criminals, and his disciple Zigong said he turned nobody away.

Which of these was one of the Six Arts that Confucius's students had to master?

The others were archery, mathematics, calligraphy, music and rites.

In a famous anecdote, what did Confucius ask when told the stables had burned down?

He did not ask about the horses, which later readers took as a mark of his humanism.

Which Confucian virtue, usually translated as benevolence, did Arthur Waley render as 'Goodness'?

It comprises five basic virtues: seriousness, generosity, sincerity, diligence and kindness.

Which Confucian concept covers ritual, ceremony and the etiquette of daily behaviour?

Confucius stressed that it developed through the actions of sage rulers rather than descending from heaven.

What term describes the Confucian ideal of the cultivated 'superior man' or gentleman?

For Confucius, learning meant moral cultivation rather than the mere accumulation of knowledge.

What Chinese character opens the collected sayings of Confucius, reflecting what he valued most?

He described himself as 'a transmitter who invented nothing'.

Confucius's ideal ruler leads by what, rather than by laws and punishments?

People led by punishments merely avoid punishment, he argued, while people led by virtue develop a sense of shame.

Confucius is traditionally credited with editing which group of ancient texts?

A sixth, the Classic of Music, was said to have been lost during the Han dynasty.

Which later Confucian thinker argued that human nature is innately good?

Xunzi took the opposite line, holding that morality must be instilled through training and tradition.

Which philosophy, adopted by Qin in 221 BCE, is seen as the antithesis of Confucian thought?

Its adherents held that rulers should rely on punishments, statecraft and vigorous administration of law.

Under which Han ruler did the works of Confucius become the official imperial philosophy?

The decision in 140 BCE was continued almost unbroken until imperial China ended in 1912.

Which 12th-century scholar was the most renowned figure of Neo-Confucianism?

Largely ignored in life, his readings became orthodoxy soon after his death and held sway across East Asia until the 19th century.

Which Jesuit made the first known effort to translate Confucius into a European language?

A Jesuit team published a Paris translation of several Confucian works in 1687.

How much of the Cemetery of Confucius in Qufu is there, holding more than 100,000 Kong family graves?

It began as a humble tomb on the Sishui River and was expanded by emperors from the Han onward.

How soon after Confucius's death was his house in Qufu consecrated as a temple by the Duke of Lu?

Emperor Gao of Han became the first emperor to offer sacrifices there in 205 BCE.

How tall is the brass statue of Confucius at Qufu?

The number matches the traditional count of his accomplished disciples.

What ducal title, first bestowed in 1055, was held by Confucius's main-line descendants for centuries?

For a period there were two such dukes, one in Qufu and one in Quzhou, after the family split during the 12th century.

What was Mao's 1973-76 campaign pairing an attack on the sage with one on a disgraced marshal called?

Red Guards had earlier attacked his tomb and dug up a 76th-generation descendant.

A frieze in which Washington DC building depicts Confucius as a teacher of harmony and virtue?

He appears on the South Wall Frieze of the courtroom among history's lawgivers.

Which Hong Kong star played Confucius in a 2010 film about his life?

An earlier film biography, starring Tang Huaiqiu, appeared in 1940.

In Taiwan, Confucius's birthday on 28 September was long marked as what?

Legislation in May 2025 made it a full public holiday.

In South Korea, the Seokjeon Daeje memorial ceremony for Confucius is held how often?

It is held on his birthday and on the anniversary of his death, at Confucian academies including Sungkyunkwan in Seoul.

Where has the oldest known portrait of Confucius been found?

It was painted on the wooden frame of a bronze mirror belonging to a Han ruler who died in 59 BCE.

Per the Analects, what did Confucius consider the most basic step toward cultivating ren?

That meant devotion to one's parents and older siblings, the foundation of his ideal government.

During which dynasty were the sayings of Confucius recognised as one of the Four Books?

During the early Han they had been considered a mere commentary on the older canon.

How many disciples of Confucius did the historian Sima Qian name in his Records of the Grand Historian?

Another early source lists 76 names, and together they yield 96 different disciples.

Confucius's second-son courtesy name Zhongni was given at what occasion?

Everyone but his older family members would have known him by it.

Confucius's ancestry was traditionally traced through a line of dukes back to which dynasty?

Not all modern scholars accept the noble descent.

According to Confucius, virtue is best described as what?

The properly generous person, he said, gives the right amount, not too much and not too little.

Which of his disciples, probably among the poorest, is described as Confucius's favourite?

By contrast Sima Niu came from a hereditary noble family of the state of Song; richer pupils paid a sum in keeping with their wealth.

Confucius married Qi Guanshi at what age?

A year later the couple had their son Kong Li; they also had two daughters, one of whom is thought to have died in childhood.

Confucius is described as a philosopher of which period of Chinese history?

He lived from roughly 551 to 479 BCE and is traditionally regarded as the paragon of Chinese sages.

Confucius was buried on the bank of which river, north of Qufu?

He died at 71 or 72 of natural causes, burdened by the loss of both his son and his favourite disciples.