Introduction – biographical information
• Confucius lived around 551 BCE to 479 B.C.E.
• He began his working life as an administrator in the Court of Lu. And resigning his job at the age of 22 and opened up his own school and traveling throughout China to teach to people.
• Confucius death at the aged of 72.
• Confucius is the latinized name given by people in the West to the philosopher known in China as K’ung fu-tzu.
• His family name was K’ung and his personal name Ch’iu. He was born in 551 B.C. in the state of Lu, in the southern part of the present Shantung province in eastern China.
• His ancestor had been members of the ducal house of the state of Sung, which was descended from the royal house of Shang, the dynasty that had preceded the Chou.
• Because of the political troubles, the family, before the birth of Confucius, had lost its noble position and migrated to Lu.
• According from the Shih Chi or Historical Records, we learn that Confucius was poor in his youth, but entered the government of Lu and by the time he was fifty had reached high official rank.
• As a result of political intrigue, however, he was soon forced to resign his post and go into exile.
• For the next thirteen years he traveled from one state to another, always hoping to find an opportunity to realize his ideal of political and social reform.
• Nowhere, however, did he succeed, and finally as an old man he returned to Lu, where he died three years later in 479 B.C.