Confucius

Confucius (551-449 BC), Chinese man of wisdom.

Confucius was born in the state of Lu, now part of Shantung in North China.

It is believed that his father was a soldier and that he died when Confucius was three.

With a widowed mother, Confucius was not rich. At the age of fifteen he became a teacher and, four years later, he was married.

Already people were talking about how wise he was. He wanted to teach the people a way of living. He said they should study in order to learn how to make themselves better.

He himself studied the wise writings of earlier times and passed on this wisdom. Confucius left Lu and travelled in other states of China. Then he went back and was given a job at court.

He went on writing his own versions of ancient books of wisdom. After his death, his students gathered together ideas he had taught them. They put them in a book called Lun Yu (The Analects).

Here are two of Confucius's sayings: 'What you do not wish done to yourself, do not do to others'; 'If a man learns but does not think, he is nothing. If he thinks but does not learn, then he is in a dangerous state.'

Over the centuries, people in China took more and more notice of Confucius's teachings and today there is a religion called Confucianism.