Confucius (
Chinese:
孔夫子;
pinyin: Kǒng Fūzǐ;
Wade-Giles: K'ung-fu-tzu), lit. "Master Kung,"
[1] September 28, 551
BC - 479
BC) was a
Chinese thinker and social
philosopher, whose teachings and
philosophy have deeply influenced
Chinese,
Korean,
Japanese, and
Vietnamese thought and life.
His philosophy emphasized personal and
governmental morality, correctness of
social relationships,
justice and
sincerity. These values gained prominence in
China over other doctrines, such as
Legalism (法家) or
Taoism (道家) during the
Han Dynasty[2][3][4] (206 BC–220 AD). Confucius' thoughts have been developed into a system of philosophy known as
Confucianism (儒家). It was introduced to Europe by the
Jesuit Matteo Ricci, who was the first to
Latinise the name as "Confucius."
His teachings may be found in the
Analects of Confucius (論語), a collection of "brief aphoristic fragments", which was compiled many years after his death. Modern historians do not believe that any specific documents can be said to have been written by Confucius,
[5][6] but for nearly 2,000 years he was thought to be the editor or author of all the
Five Classics[7][8] such as the
Classic of Rites (editor), and the
Spring and Autumn Annals (春秋) (author).
