Confucius-- Not Confusion-s

The teaching of Confucius is perhaps the most frequently made fun of teachings amongst all the model teachers in the past. To most of the western people, Confucius is just mysterious and controversial as Zen (禅Chán), the art of tea (茶Chá艺Yì), 风 Fēng 水shuǐ , Shaoling martial arts (少Shào林Líng武Wŭ术Shù) and panda (熊xióng猫māo).

On the eve of Confucius's birthday, which is September 28th, also known as the Teachers Day in Taiwan, let's have a brief look at the significance of Confucius.

Confucius, 孔Kŏng子 Zǐ was born in a chaotic age before Emperor Qing united all nations and started the first dynasty. The year was 551BC, before Socrates (469~389BC) and Aristotle (384~322BC) of Greece, and after Gautama Buddha (563~483BC) of India. Although he was of noble birth, his father passed away when he was three and his mother raised him in poverty. While growing up, Confucius worked several patty jobs such as a book keeper in charge of a barn and the livestock. Despite the poverty, Confucius visited many teachers to receive his education. One of his teachers was 老Lăo子Zǐ, a even more famous Chinese philosopher who wrote 道Dào德Dé经 Jīng.

At that time, education was beginning to open up to commoners and no longer was the privilege of the noblemen. At the age of 30, Confucius began to have students that followed him and since then he had made it his mission to educate as many people as possible. Regardless of the social ranking or profession, as long as those who came to him were willing, Confucius would fully devote to educating these people and teach them based on each individual's quality. The famous phrase有Yŏu教 jiào无 Wú类 Lày (有Yŏu means 'yes' or 'to have'; 教Jiào 'to teach' and 'to educate'; 无Wú 'no' or 'to not have'; and 类Lày means 'a kind', 'a category') is associated with Confucius, praising him as a teacher who "teaches without discrimination". Because of this, some people even compared him to the greatest teacher of all, Jesus Christ - whose disciples also consisted of fishermen, tax collector - and addressed Confucius as 至Zhì圣Shèng先xiān师shī, Saint Teacher.

In his 43 years of traveling the countries for teaching, which was also for promoting the idea of世Shì界Jiè大Dà同Tóng, "world peace" or "world without discrimination", Confucius had over 3,000 students that carried on his teaching after his death. Besides teaching, Confucius also compiled the scriptures and edited into several key books used in his teaching. These books are still the text books used from high school to college today. Among these books, the most commonly used and quoted is the Analects - 论Lún语Yŭ.

I think Confucius's key contribution is not only by teaching or writing books that are still circulating in the Chinese societies now. In his teaching, especially while traveling from nation to nation, there was a underlying foundation which was 仁Rén. Basically仁Rén refers to mercy, kindness, generosity; but it also can be elaborated to refer to wisdom and visions - especially those related to mercy, kindness, generosity, and forgiveness. This仁Rén is not only a virtue or concept, it is also a behavior and action;and it is what runs through the Chinese culture.