50 free Confucianism trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Confucianism has no word for itself in Chinese. The tradition that shaped East Asia for two and a half millennia is simply ru, the school of the scholars, and it never needed a church: it ran through family ritual, the Five Classics, the imperial examinations and the idea that a ruler governs by moral example or loses the Mandate of Heaven. Confucius himself claimed to be a transmitter who invented nothing, which has not stopped his name being attached to almost everything. These 50 questions cover the system rather than just the man: ren, li and the Five Constants, the junzi, filial piety and the Twenty-four exemplars, the Five Classics and the lost Classic of Music, Zhu Xi's Four Books, Mencius's good human nature against Xunzi's bad one, the Han adoption and Qin suppression, the eight-legged essay, the 1905 abolition of the exams, and the Neo-Confucian schools of Cheng–Zhu and Lu–Wang. Qufu's temple and cemetery, the Jesuits who coined 'Confucius', the 2015 Confucian Church and the 2025 public holiday round it out. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and each explanation adds one more detail. Play it solo or print it for a philosophy class.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the closest Chinese catch-all term for Confucianism?
Ru
Its modern meanings include 'scholar' or 'refined man'; some scholars prefer 'Ruism' for the tradition.
Q 02Which Confucian virtue is usually translated 'benevolence' or 'humaneness'?
Ren
Its character combines the signs for 'person' and 'two', pointing to relationships between people.
Q 03The character for ren is a composite of 'person' and which numeral?
Two
The pairing is read as humaneness expressed between people.
Q 04Which Confucian virtue means 'propriety' or 'rites'?
Li
Ren is cultivated through the observance of proper ritual, li.
Q 05Han Confucians grouped ren, yi, li, zhi and xin under what collective name?
The Five Constants
They are ren, yi, li, zhi and xin.
Q 06What does the Chinese word tian, central to Confucian thought, mean?
Heaven
Confucianism upholds tian as a transcendent moral order rather than an omnipotent deity.
Q 07The Confucian ideal of the junzi literally means what?
Son of a lord
Confucius redefined it as a person of noble character that anyone could become.
Q 08Which Chinese character, xiao, names the virtue of respect for parents and ancestors?
Filial piety
The Classic of Filial Piety has long been the authoritative text on it.
Q 09How many exemplary cases appear in the famous collection titled Ershisi Xiao?
Twenty-four
The tales were used for centuries to teach children their duties.
Q 10Confucius described himself as a what, 'who invented nothing'?
Transmitter
He claimed to pass on the values of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.
Q 11The name 'Confucius' is a Latinised form coined in the late 16th century by whom?
Jesuit missionaries
It renders Kongfuzi, 'Great Master Kong'; he was born Kong Qiu.
Q 12In which modern city, then the state of Lu, is Confucius thought to have been born?
Qufu
The date is traditionally given as 28 September 551 BCE.
Q 13Confucius is said to have taught 3,000 pupils, of whom how many mastered the Six Arts?
72 or 77
The Shiji gives the figure; Yan Hui was the most beloved of them.
Q 14'Do not do unto others what you do not want done to yourself' is sometimes called what?
Q 21Mencius is traditionally honoured with which title relative to Confucius?
The Second Sage
Born Meng Ke in the state of Zou, he lived c. 371–289 BC.
Q 22What did Mencius hold about human nature?
It is inherently good
He illustrated it with a child about to fall down a well: anyone would feel alarm.
Q 23Which Confucian philosopher held, against Mencius, that human nature is evil?
Xunzi
His reputation suffered from the Tang dynasty on; his students Han Fei and Li Si became Legalists.
The Silver Rule
'Do not do unto others what you do not want done to yourself.'
Q 15The Analects reached its final form during which dynasty?
Han
Large portions were composed in the Warring States period; early Han scholars treated it as a mere commentary on the Five Classics.
Q 16The lost sixth classic, which vanished under the Han, dealt with what subject?
Music
It disappeared during the Han dynasty; music was the internal key and rites the external key to harmony.
Q 17Which of the Five Classics is held to be the earliest, mixing divination and ethics?
I Ching
The Book of Changes sees the cosmos as the interaction of yin and yang.
Q 18The Spring and Autumn Annals chronicles its period from the perspective of which state?
Lu
Lu was Confucius's home state; the period runs 771–481 BC.
Q 19Which Song-dynasty scholar selected the Four Books as the entry to Confucian thought?
Zhu Xi
His commentaries became accepted as the authentic meaning of Confucius himself.
Q 20The Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean were originally chapters of which classic?
Book of Rites
The Doctrine of the Mean is attributed to Confucius's grandson Zisi.
Q 24Which two famous Legalists had been students of Xunzi?
Han Fei and Li Si
Li Si became chancellor to the First Emperor of Qin.
Q 25Mencius argued subjects may do what to a ruler who ignores the people's needs?
Overthrow or kill him
Of the wicked King Zhou of Shang he said he had heard of killing a villain, not murdering a ruler.
Q 26Mencius used the image of a child falling down what to prove innate goodness?
A well
The instinctive alarm any observer feels is one of his Four Beginnings.
Q 27Under which dynasty was Confucianism suppressed by Legalist rulers?
Qin
It flourished again under the Han from around 130 BCE.
Q 28Which Han Confucian synthesised the tradition with yin-yang and the five phases?
Dong Zhongshu
His Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals even suggests a more equal marriage.
Q 29Which imperial librarian edited the Five Classics into their received versions?
Liu Xin
That was around 500 years after Confucius.
Q 30Neo-Confucianism is literally the 'School of' what?
Principle
Lixue dominated Chinese philosophy from the 13th to the 19th century.