Confucius and His Teachings

This chapter presents an account of Confucius' personal life, his character, professions, and doctrinal dispositions. Confucius championed ethical rectitude and demonstrated that morality and public administration begins at home, in the family. Being mindful of widespread iniquitous, widespread inhumane and unethical activities, conducted by people at all levels and professions in the society, Confucius was determined to minimize the effects of administrative corruption and improve social control through the institution of ancient Chinese customs, specifically filial piety and ancestor worship. He was essentially interested in learning or remembering the ancient rites and customs. He admittedly introduced no new philosophical ideas apart from combining politics with religious rituals, ethics, and learning. As an extraordinarily adept scholar of the Confucian canon, Confucius whose birth name was Kong-qui, ably presented a variety of interpretations of given canonical passages. Confucius was suspected of being a Buddhist priest given his strong inclination towards Buddhism. Confucius exhibited a somewhat mercurial personality.