Confucius (Kongzi)

Also known as Kong Qiu · Zhong Ni · Zhisheng Xianshi

Confucius, personal name Qiu and courtesy name Zhongni, came from Zouyi in the state of Lu (near modern Qufu, Shandong), and the Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) places his birth in 551 BC. After minor posts keeping granaries and livestock, he rose under Duke Ding of Lu from magistrate of Zhongdu to Minister of Justice. Around 497 BC he left Lu and spent about fourteen years with his disciples in Wei, Chen, Cai, Song and other states, returning in 484 BC to teach and put the old texts in order. His disciples and their students compiled his sayings as the Analects (Lunyu), and the Shiji counts three thousand pupils, seventy-two of whom mastered the six arts. He died in 479 BC and was buried north of the Lu capital on the Si River. The Tang court named him King of Culture Propagation in 739, and in 1530 the Ming retitled him Supreme Sage and Foremost Teacher.