Existing in China over more than 2200 years Confucianism lost at the beginning of the 20th century its strong hold, when it was attacked by radical Chinese thinkers. Those thinkers accused it of being a vanguard of a feudal system and an obstacle to China's modernization, This culminated in its repression and vilification during the Cultural Revolution. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Confucianism has been revived in mainland China, and both interest in and debate about Confucianism os surging again.

Apricot Platform in the Confucius Temple. Second largest historical building complex in China

What is it
It is a system of moral, social, political, and religious thought, which had tremendous influence on the history of Chinese civilization down to the 21st century.
Confucianism developed from the teachings of Confucius and his disciples concerned with the principles of good conduct, practical wisdom, and proper social relationships. Chinese scholars honored Confucius as a great teacher and sage.

Influence
It influenced the Chinese attitude toward life, set patterns of living and standards of social value, and provided background for Chinese political theories and institutions. It spread from China to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam and aroused interest among Western scholars as well.
The cultures most strongly influenced by Confucianism include beside of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, as well as various territories including Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Singapore

Who was Confucius (551–479 BCE)
He was a social philosopher of China, whose teachings deeply influenced East Asia for twenty centuries. As with many new ideas also Confucius' ideas were not accepted during his lifetime but thereafter..

Like in the case of Gautama Buddha, Jesus or Socrates we don’t have direct access to his ideas. Instead they were recollected by his disciples and their students . This factor is further complicated by a massive suppression during the Qin Dynasty, two centuries after Confucius' death, where most of the original scriptures were burnt. What we now know of Confucius' writings and thoughts is therefore somewhat unreliable.
Confucius worried about the troubled times he lived in. He went from place to place trying to spread his political ideas and to influence the many small kings or warlords contending for supremacy.
The disintegration of the Zhou Dynasty in the third century BCE created a power vacuum Deeply convinced of the need for his mission Confucius tirelessly promoted the virtues of ancient heroic kings. But he never gained the opportunity to apply his ideas, as he was expelled from state services many times. In the end he returned to his homeland to spend the last part of his life teaching.
Confucius did not rely on logic to convince his listeners, but used analogy, aphorism and even tautology to explain his ideas. These techniques were highly contextualised and therefore are sometimes difficult to understand for contermporary scholars.

Books of importance
Writings can be divided into two groups: the “Five Classics” and the “Four Books”.

The Wu Ching (Five Classics) originated mostly before Confucius and consist of

I) Ching (Book of Changes)
a manual of divination compiled before the 11th century BC; its supplementary philosophical portion, contained in a series of appendixes, written later by Confucius and his disciples.
2. Shu Ching (Book of History) collection of ancient historical documents
3. Shih Ching (Book of Poetry), an anthology of ancient poems.
4. Li Chi (Book of Rites) principles of conduct for public and private ceremonies. destroyed in the 3rd century BC, but much of it preserved in a later compilation
5. Ch'un Ch'iu (Spring and Autumn Annals) only work compiled by Confucius himself. A chronicle of major historical events in feudal China from 8th century BC to Confucius's death early in the 5th century BC.

The Shih Shu (Four Books)
hold teachings of Confucius and Mencius and commentaries by their followers,

1) Lun Yü (Analects), a collection of maxims by Confucius that form the basis of his moral and political philosophy;
2) Ta Hsüeh (The Great Learning) ,
3) Chung Yung (The Doctrine of the Mean),
2 and 3 contain some of Confucius's philosophical utterances with comments and expositions by his disciples;
4) Mencius (Book of Mencius)
contains the teachings of one of Confucius's great followers.

What is the center of his teachings?

Although Confucius claimed that he never invented anything but was only transmitting ancient knowledge he did produce a number of new ideas

Jen
The guiding principle means "love," "goodness," "humanity," and "human-heartedness."
It’s a virtue representing human qualities at their best. In human relations it means chung, (faithfulness to oneself and others) and shu (Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself) .Other virtues include righteousness, propriety, integrity, and filial piety. One who possesses all these virtues becomes a chün-tzu (perfect gentleman).
Sovereign
Confucius advocated a government in which the sovereign is benevolent and honorable and the subjects are respectful and obedient. The ruler should cultivate moral perfection in order to set a good example to the people.

Education
He upheld that "in education, there is no class distinction." leading to meritocracy.
Many western admirers point to the then revolutionary idea of replacing the nobility of blood with one of virtue. A virtuous plebeian who cultivates his qualities can be a "gentleman", while a shameless son of the king is only a "small man".
The stress on education led to the introduction of the Imperial examination system in China. This system allowed anyone who passed to become a government officer, a position which would bring wealth and honour to the whole family.
In that way China gave Europe an important practical legacy, the modern civil service
During the Warring States Period and the early Han dynasty China grew greatly and the need for a solid and centralized civil service, able to read and write administrative papers, arose. As a result Confucianism was promoted and the civil servants it produced became an effective counter to the landowner aristocrats threatening the unity of the state.

Ritual
Originally signified to sacrifice in a religious ceremony. In Confucianism the term was soon extended to include secular ceremonial behaviour used to refer to the propriety or politeness which colours everyday life. Rituals were codified and treated as an all-embracing system of norms. Confucius himself tried to revive the etiquette of earlier dynasties, but following his death he himself became regarded as the great authority on ritual behaviour.

Relationship
One central theme is relationship and the duties arising from different status one held in relation to others.
There are different degrees of relationship with different people, namely, as a junior in relation to parents and elders, and as a senior in relation to children, younger siblings, students and others.
While juniors owe strong duties of reverence and service to seniors, seniors also have duties of benevolence and concern toward juniors. This manifests itself in many aspects of East Asian culture even to this day, with extensive filial duties on the part of children toward parents and elders, and great concern of parents toward their children.

Filial piety
considered to belong to the greatest of virtues and must be shown towards the living and the dead. "Filial" denotes the respect and obedience that a child, originally a son, should show to his parents, especially to his father. This relationship was extended by analogy to a series of five cardinal relationships, which are “father and son”, “ruler and subject”, “husband and wife”, “elder and younger brother” and also between friends
Specific duties were prescribed to each of the participants in these sets of relationships. They were also extended to the dead leading to the veneration of ancestors.
Filial piety was later built into the Chinese legal system. A criminal would be punished more harshly if the culprit had committed the crime against a parent, while fathers exercised enormous power over their children. Much the same was true of other unequal relationships.

Loyalty
Is the equivalent of filial piety relating to ruler and minister. It was particularly relevant for the social class to which most of Confucius' students belonged, because the only way for an ambitious young scholar to make his way in the Confucian Chinese world was to enter a ruler's civil service.
Confucius had advocated a sensitivity to the realpolitik of the class relations that existed in his time. He did not propose that "might makes right", but that a superior who had received the Mandate of Heaven should be obeyed because of his moral rectitude.
Only later emphasis was placed more on the obligations of the ruled to the ruler, and less on the ruler's obligations to the ruled.

Humaneness (Rén)
Confucius was concerned with people's individual development, which he maintained took place within the context of human relationships. Ritual and filial piety are the ways in which one should act towards others from the perspective of humaneness. probably best expressed as "Do not do to others what you would not like them to do to you".
Rén also has a political dimension. If the ruler lacks rén it will be difficult if not impossible for his subjects to behave humanely. Rén, the basis of Confucian political theory. presupposes an autocratic ruler to refrain from acting inhumanely towards his subjects. An inhumane ruler runs the risk of losing his right to rule and need not be obeyed. But a ruler who reigns humanely and takes care of the people is to be obeyed strictly. Confucius himself had little to say on the will of the people

The perfect gentleman (Junzi)
The term "Junzi" is a crucial term to classic Confucianism. A succinct description of the "perfect man" is one who combines the qualities of saint, scholar, and gentleman.
A hereditary elitism was bound up with the concept, and gentlemen were expected to act as moral guides to the rest of society. They were to:cultivate themselves morally; participate in the correct performance of ritual; show filial piety and loyalty where these are due; and cultivate humaneness.
The opposite of “Junzi” was the “Xiaorén” meaning the "small person" or "petty person." “Xiaorén” means petty in mind and heart, narrowly self-interested, greedy, superficial, and materialistic.

Law
Confucianism is reluctant to employ laws.
In a society where relationships are considered more important than the laws themselves, if no other power forces government officers to take the common interest into consideration, corruption and nepotism will arise.
While in Confucius time the salaries of civil servants allowed to get rich, they later on were often far lower than the minimum required to raise a family, Chinese society has frequently been affected by those problems, and still is. Even if some means to control and reduce corruption and nepotism have been successfully used in China, Confucianism is criticized for not providing such a means itself.

Confucius argues that under law, external authorities administer punishments after illegal actions, so people generally behave well without understanding reasons why they should; whereas with ritual, patterns of behaviour are internalised and exert their influence before actions are taken, so people behave properly because they fear shame and want to avoid losing face.

Selfdiscipline
Another key Confucian concept is that in order to govern others one must first govern oneself. When developed sufficiently, the king's personal virtue spreads beneficent influence throughout the kingdom, an idea tightly linked with the Taoist concept of wu wei.

Delegation or small government
The less the king does, the more is done. By being the "calm centre" around which the kingdom turns, the king allows everything to function smoothly and avoids having to tamper with the individual parts of the whole.
This idea may be traced back to shamanistic beliefs, such as that of the king being the connection point between the heaven, human beings and the Earth. Another view is that this idea may have been used by ministers and counsellors to deter aristocratic whims that would otherwise be to the detriment of the population.

What came after him
After his death two major schools emerged. One the school of Mencius, the other the school of Hsün-tzu

Mencius
He believed in the innate goodness of human nature. But original human goodness can become depraved through one's own destructive effort or through contact with an evil environment. The problem of moral cultivation is therefore to preserve or if necessary to restore the goodness that is one's birthright.
Mencius is one of the early advocates of democracy, as he stressed the people's supremacy in the state.

Hsün-tzu
according to him a person is born with an evil nature, but can be regenerated through moral education. Desires should be guided and restrained by the rules of propriety. Character should be molded by the observance of rites and by the practice of music. This code serves as a powerful influence on character by properly directing emotions and by providing inner harmony. Hsün-tzu was the main exponent of ritualism in Confucianism.

History of Confucianism
After his death a brief period of downtrend followed, but Confucianism revived during the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). Candidates for high government positions received their appointments based on their knowledge of classic literature. As a result, Confucianism secured a firm hold on Chinese intellectual and political life.
The success of Han Confucianism is attributed to Tung Chung-Shu, who first recommended a system of education built upon the teachings of Confucius. Tung Chung-Shu believed in a close interaction between human beings and nature. In this concept; a person's deeds, especially those of the sovereign, are seen as responsible for unusual phenomena in nature.
Because of the sovereign's authority, he/she is to blame for phenomena as fire, flood, earthquake, and eclipse. As these ill omens descend on earth as a warning that all is not well, the fear of heavenly punishment proves useful as a curb to the monarch's absolute power.
After the fall of the Han dynasty Confucianism had to compete with philosophies of Taoism and Buddhism. The mainstream Confucianism integrated therefore Taoist and Buddhist ideas, creating a more complete metaphysics teaching, than had ever existed before.
The Confucian Classics remained the chief source of learning for scholars, and with the restoration of peace and prosperity in the Tang dynasty (618-907), a spread of Confucianism followed. The monopoly of learning by Confucian scholars once again ensured them the highest civil servant positions. This time Confucianism returned as an orthodox state teaching.
The intellectual activities of the Sung dynasty (960-1279) gave rise to Neo Confucianism based even more on an integration of Buddhist and Taoist elements. The scholars who evolved this intellectual system were themselves well versed in Buddhism and Taoism
Although primarily teachers of ethics, they were also interested in the theories of the universe and the origin of human nature.

Neo-Confucianism branched out into two schools of philosophy.
School of Chu Hsi
which developed a cohesive system, according to which all objects in nature are composed of two inherent forces:
1) li, the underlying law of the universe
2) ch'i, the substance of which all material things are made.
Whereas ch'i may change and dissolve, li remains constant and indestructible.
li is identified in humankind with human nature, essentially the same for all people. Differences are attributed to the quality of the ch'i found among individuals. Those who receive a ch'i that is turbid will find their original nature obscured and should cleanse their nature to restore its purity. Purity can be achieved by extending one's knowledge of the li in each individual object.
When, after much sustained effort, one has investigated and comprehended the universal li or natural law inherent in all animate and inanimate objects, one becomes a sage.

The foremost leader of the opposing school was
Wang Yang-ming (hsin school)
This school taught the unity of knowledge and practice. For this school only mind exists. in which all the laws of nature are embodied. Nothing exists without the mind. One's supreme effort should be to develop "the intuitive knowledge" of the mind, not through the study or investigation of natural law, but through intense thought and calm meditation.
During the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) a strong reaction to both the li and hsin schools of Neo-Confucianism came up..
Qing scholars advocated a return to the Confucianism of the Han period, when it was still unadulterated by Buddhist and Taoist ideas. They developed textual criticism of the Confucian Classics based on scientific methodology, using philology, history, and archaeology to reinforce their scholarship. In addition, scholars such as Tai Chen introduced an empiricist point of view into Confucian philosophy.

Toward the end of the 19th century the reaction against Neo-Confucian metaphysics took again a different turn. Confucian scholars took an active interest in politics and formulated reform programs based on Confucian doctrine.

K'ang Yu-wei (Reform movement)
a leader of the Confucian reform movement, made an attempt to exalt the philosophy as a national religion. Because of foreign threats to China and the urgent demand for drastic political measures, the reform movements failed after the revolution of 1911..

Recent situation
After 1911 Confucianism lost its hold, when it was attacked by radical Chinese thinkers as a vanguard of a feudal system and an obstacle to China's modernization, This culminated in its repression and vilification during the Cultural Revolution
After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Confucianism has been revived in mainland China, and both interest in and debate about Confucianism seems to surge again.

With low income for the civil servants it is said that Confucianism is supporting corruption. One major argument against this criticism is that the so-called Confucian East Asian societies such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and China have exhibited the most extraordinary growth rates in economic history. Singapore has also consistently been noted as one of the most corruption-free states on earth.

One problem that has plagued Confucianism continously is the question of which set of texts is the more authentic. But this question shouldn’t be taken too seriously. The verification and comparison for authenticity between the 'old scripts' and 'new scripts' text has remained the works of Confucian scholars for 2000 years up to the twentieth century.

Some tend to see Confucianism as a religion. While it prescribes a great deal of ritual, little of it can be construed as worship or meditation in a formal sense. Confucius occasionally made statements about the existence of other-worldly beings that sound distinctly agnostic and humanistic to Western ears. Thus, Confucianism is often considered an ethical tradition and not a religion.
Still its effect on Chinese and other East Asian societies and cultures parallels the effects of religious movements, seen in other cultures.
Those who follow the teachings of Confucius are comforted by it. It makes their lives more complete and their sufferings bearable. It includes a great deal of ritual and gives a comprehensive explanation of the world, of human nature, etc. Moreover, religions in Chinese culture are not mutually exclusive entities — each tradition is free to find its specific niche, its field of specialisation. One can be a Taoist, Christian, Muslim, Shintoist or Buddhist and still profess Confucianist beliefs.
Confucianism is not considered a religion by Chinese or other East Asian people. Part of this attitude may be explained by the stigma placed on many "religions" as being superstitious, illogical, or unable to deal with modernity. Even according to many Buddhists Buddhism is not a religion, but a philosophy, partially a reaction to negative popular views of religion.
The question of whether Confucianism is a religion, or otherwise, is ultimately a definitional problem. If the definition used is worship of supernatural entities, the answer may be that Confucianism is not a religion, but then this definition could also be used to argue that many traditions commonly held to be religious (Buddhism, some forms of Islam etc) are also not, in fact, religions.
If, on the other hand, a religion is defined as a belief system that includes moral stances, guides for daily life, systematic views of humanity and its place in the universe, etc., then Confucianism most definitely qualifies as a religion.

Historical Place
Qufu(China): The birthplace of Confucius , major cultural attractions of Qufu have been listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1994.

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