Story of 孔子[KongZi]

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More than two thousand and five hundred years ago, an illuminating cultural giant was born in State of 鲁[Lu3] (today's 曲阜 [Qiu2Fu4] county, 山东[ShanDong] province in China) at the end of the Chinese historic era called 春秋[ChunQiu]. He was, in Chinese history, the great educator, thinker, renown politician, and the founding father of Confucianism, the one who was revered with a honorific title "至圣" [Zhi4Sheng - The Highest Sage]. He was 孔子 [Kong2Zi3]

孔子 [Kong2Zi3], named 丘[Qiu], styled 仲尼[Zhong4Ni2], native of 陬[Zou] town, 昌平[Chang4Ping2] village, State of 鲁[Lu3] in the final stage of 春秋 era. He was born in the twenty-second ruling year of ruler 鲁襄公 [Lu3XiangGong] (551 b.c.), on August 27th of lunar calendar. He passed away in the sixteenth ruling year of ruler 鲁哀公[Lu3AiGong] (479 b.c.). 孔子 had lived 73 years.

The era 孔子 had been lived was the so called 春秋 era in Chinese history. 春秋 era was the transformation period when drastic, violent shakeup of the Chinese society was experienced in its social systems and in its cultural characteristics. At that time, the patriarchal, consanguinity clan system formed since the 西周[XiZhou] Dynasty was unprecedentedly in total collapse and decline especially in those feudal states because such political system was not being able to adapt to the needs of rapidly developing societal changes. Driven by the despicable desire of power and greed, these feudal states were having the brutal, perennial wars of annexation with each other. Thereby, the entire society was in a state of chaos and turbulence: the manners and morals of the time had decayed; etiquette and courtesy of the old "ritual musical" system disappeared, law and order lost its effect, ethics were no longer observed. The phenomenas of "贱妨贵, 少陵长, 远间亲, 新间旧, 小加大, 淫破义, 所谓六逆"[the poor bothering the rich, the young disrespecting the old, the distant relatives crowding out the blood kins, the new friends crowding out the old ones, the youths trusting the elders, immorality superseding ethics, the so called Six Contradictions] were widespread.

In order to salvage the deepening social and cultural crisis, in order to save the downtrodden from the abyss of suffering, in order to restore the law and legal system, in order to restitute the moral standard of humanity, 孔子, with a moral man's sorrow and love for his fellow men and the universe, with a wise man's board vision and honest ambition to save the world, in his regurgitation of the social reality, based on his critical assessment of the traditional culture, rational concern about human's survival and development, initialized the structure of his ideal humanitarianism, and proposed the philosophy of 儒 [Yu2 - Philosophy of Confucianism], with 仁 [Ren2 - The core moral standard and philosophy of Confucianism. Kongzi defined 仁 as the synergy or combination of 恭, 宽, 信, 敏, 惠, 智, 勇, 忠, 恕, 孝, 弟] as its kernel, 礼[Li3 - The general order and degree system of Chinese feudal society, and its related etiquette, protocol, or ceremony; especially its moral standard, the norm] as it's form. He created the school of 儒家学派 [Confucianism], with the purpose of promoting self-cultivation, pacifying, omniscience, and serenity. In his whole life of practical activities, 孔子 with his rich sense of vocation, "文王即没, 文不在兹乎" [Emperor Wen just died, has it not his cultural legacy passed to me?] and strong consciousness of responsibility of 君子谋道不谋食 [Virtuous man seeks principle but not food]; 君子忧道不忧贫 [Virtuous man worries about principle but not poverty], on the one hand, he toured many feudal states and used every ounce of his energy to popularize the kindhearted, rule-of-virtue principle of 仁爱德治 [performing duties of an office or ruling post according to virtue], on the other hand, he pioneered in establishing private schools, accepted disciples extensively, made great efforts to spread the doctrine of Confucianism, collected and collated ancient books and records. Although 孔子 KongZi's aspiration of rectifying, saving the world didn't realize in his time, but the Confucianism he created originally produced a profound impact on Chinese traditional society, on the progress of Chinese culture, as well as on the renewal and transformation of human civilization in the later course of the Chinese history, and is still of the most eminent, brilliant value. Several hundred years after 孔子's death, the famous historian 司马迁 [SiMa3Qian - an ancient Chinese historian] of 西汉 [XiHang4] dynasty commented on him once after paying a visit to 孔子's birth-place (today's 曲阜[Qiu4Fu4] county, 山东[ShanDong] province of China) and doing a thorough review of him: "天下君王至于贤人众矣, 当时则荣, 没则已焉. 孔子布衣, 传十余世, 学者宗之. 自天子王候, 中国言六艺者折中于夫子,可谓至圣矣!" [In this world we have numerous kings, queens and intellects that were glorious in their time, but were forgotten afterward. 孔子, a humble common man, his thought has passed along and continued for more than several hundred years, studied and admired by all scholars. Today's six arts - Rituals, Music, Archery, Charioteering, Calligraphy, Arithmetic are all originated from Master 孔子, he certainly can be called the 至圣 (Zhi4Sheng - the most knowledgeable master sage)] Moreover, 孔子KongZi and his doctrine of 儒家[Ru2Jia - Philosophy of Confucianism] have received modern society's notice and affirmation. In the 1984 edition of People Almanac, 孔子 was listed atop as ten greatest thinkers in the world. In January 1988, the world's Nobel Prize recipients gathering in Paris declared: "If humans want to survive in 21 century, they must go back 2500 years to the wisdom of 孔子." The reason being that 孔子 was able to be praised and admired by people of all ages and all time, is that not only because of his creation of 儒家(Confucianism), containing a richly, profoundly fine essence on how humans should survive and grow, but also because of his whole life's activities that set up for us a brilliant example and eternal model.

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