China, and pretty much most of Eastern Asia is something that we haven’t really talked
about on this channel.
And I’ve seen your comments, I know you guys want this.
So then, what better way to initiate Vlogs of Knowledge into Eastern history than to
talk about perhaps the most influential person in that area: Confucius.
Confucius was a Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher who lived in China in the
late 6th century BC.
He is the principal influence of Confucianism, a very popular eastern philosophy.
In fact, it is so popular, that we still see it around today, thousands of years later.
If you’re new here, I’m Darius Cosden and this is Vlogs of Knowledge.
Make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell, as I do upload every single Wednesday.
In this video we’re going to talk about Confucius, his life, his story, his political and ethical
philosophies, and also how they played into the creation of Confucianism.
One important thing to note is that this happened a very long time ago.
And usually, when you try to piece together things from the distant past, it can be a
little difficult.
Not only is it hard to find reliable sources, but it’s also a matter of finding people
who would’ve thought to record the events of the time.
You see, the concept of recording our own history is something that is very rare in ancient times.
Very few people that we know of took the time, and had the intellectual ability to record
everything that was happening.
So you should take everything I say in this video with a grain of salt.
The life of Confucius starts in China, in a district called “Lu”, located in the
present-day province of Shandong.
He is said to have been born in the year 551 BC, although, no source can truly confirm
this, since most of the documents that we have of him were written much later.
At the time, China was separated into districts, whom each had their own ruler: the duke.
Now under the duke, in the district of Lu, were three powerful families that each had
control of a certain political aspect.
For example, one family was the minister of the masses, another one was a minister of
works, and another a minister of war.
The problem was that the three families had, according to tradition, hereditary right to
rule over certain aspects of the political sphere.
And this right posed a challenge to the duke, who wanted the power for himself.
Confucius didn’t really agree with the family distribution of power.
In one of the main sources we have of his life, the Analects, we see a quote attributed
to him that says “The ruler should be a ruler, his subjects subjects, the father should
be a father, and his son a son”.
With this belief, he often found himself fighting and trying to restore some of the power to
the duke.
But he was only able to use diplomacy, since he didn’t have access to any military army.
Confucius was a descendant of a branch of the royal family of Shang, the dynasty that
ruled China a few hundred years before his birth.
However, he and his family lived in the small district of Lu, which seems to indicate that
his royal lineage may have lost its influence over time.
It’s clear that even though the fortunes of his family had declined, he was no commoner.
Confucius belonged to the aristocratic class, which at the time served as court officials,
scholars, and teachers.
And it is because of that status, that he was able to get low-grade government jobs
at a very young age.
Which explains why he was then able to use his influence to try to help the duke.
Some of these jobs, to name a few, were bookkeeping for granaries or managing stables.
All of whom weren’t glamorous jobs, but fit very well with his status in society.
It was at this young age, that he began to seek knowledge and to develop his mastery
of the six arts: ritual, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and arithmetic.
Confucius spent a large part of his teenage years questioning everything, trying to learn
as much as he can, and eventually moving on to teaching others.
He is known as the first teacher in China who tried to make education available to all,
and who was crucial in establishing the art of teaching as a as a way of life instead
of necessity.
He had quite a unique view on education.
He saw the benefits of teaching on a much larger scale.
He firmly believed that every human-being would benefit greatly from learning as much
as they could.
He was convinced it was the only way to become an exemplary person.
Which, I mean is very impressive for the 6th century BC.
Before Confucius, people would hire tutors to teach their kids. If they could afford it.
And government officials would they themselves train their successors
to prepare them for the job at hand.
What Confucius was preaching, was something that was totally different.
But educating oneself wasn’t enough.
Another interesting aspect of his philosophy was the fact that he believed that social
interaction was also important.
Although educating yourself was a great thing in his eyes, he saw the value of interacting
with others, sharing ideas, and growing together as collectives.
Now you may be asking the question: how do we know all this?
Well, our best source for understanding Confucius and his thoughts, is a book called the Analects.
This is a great book, that sheds a lot of light on who he was, but it also causes us
a few problems.
The Analects has been subject to controversy over the years because it was compiled in
different versions long after Confucius' death by his disciples or even disciples of
disciples.
And of course, I often say it on this show.
When you have things being passed down orally for years and years, only to then be written
down at a much later date, you are bound to lose some of the original sayings.
It’s very hard to keep things word for word decades later.
For example, book 10 of the Analects consists of personal observations of how Confucius
comported himself as a thinker, teacher, and official.
But some have argued that these passages were originally meant to be more general guidelines
on how a gentleman should behave that were then relabelled as descriptions of Confucius.
And here’s what I mean.
One of the passages goes like this: When at court conversing with officers of a lower
grade, he is friendly, though straightforward; when conversing with officers of a higher
grade, he is restrained but precise.
When the ruler is present, he is wary, but not cramped.
This can be taken as being a description of Confucius himself, since he did eventually
get a powerful governing position, and it also fits with his overall philosophy, but
it can also be taken as a more general description that could easily apply to any well-established
gentleman.
And if you are a modern reader that's trying to figure out who Confucius was and how he
thought, this might leave you a little bit disappointed.
It really is a shame that we probably lost a good chunk of his story due to the fact
that it happened such a long time ago.
I guess we’ll never really be able to know.
There are also other sources that we have of Confucius, but they have all the same problems.
No surviving book was written at the time he was alive that talks about him and his
philosophies.
So we have to make do with what we have.
As he grew older, he acquired a strong reputation for himself.
He became known for his teachings, his fairness, his focus on strong values, and for his positions
in government.
At a later point in his life, he is even said to have been the director of crime, a very
powerful government position.
Confucius, being involved in government, started to have some ideas as to how things should
be run.
I mean he was an intellect, after all.
He believed that a ruler should learn self-discipline, should govern his subjects by his own example,
and should treat them with love and concern, since the ruler has a great influence over
his people.
Our evidence for this comes from a passage attributed to him that says: “If the people
be led by laws, and uniformity among them be sought by punishments, they will try to
escape punishment and have no sense of shame.
If they are led by virtue, and uniformity among them sought through the practice of
ritual propriety, they will possess a sense of shame and come to you of their own accord”.
Which basically says that if you rule by punishment, people will do anything to avoid it.
But if you rule by virtues, then people will naturally come to their senses and realize
what they did wrong, which would eventually lead them to correct themselves.
It’s a very wise, philosophical take on government.
Something that Confucius would eventually become really popular for.
Now at the time, in China, with the dynastic system of power, there was a certain hierarchy
between the different rulers.
A dynasty is simply a lineage of rulers that come from the same family, and Confucius loved
that.
He firmly believed and honored the family system.
But keep in mind, this is different than the three families we talked about before.
He preached that people should listen to their parents and their authority, they should care
for them when they get old, they should give them a proper burial, and they should mourn
for them once they are dead.
Some even say he advocated offering sacrifices to ancestors.
As influential as he was, Confucius saw himself not as a creator of ideologies, but as a mere
transmitter of heavenly ideas.
To him, all that he did reflected his “reliance on and his love for the ancients”.
Which were basically his ancestors.
He claimed that he had a special and privileged relationship with Heaven and that he had finally
understood what Heaven wanted for him and for the rest of mankind.
His job wasn’t to create a whole new political sphere.
His job was simply to transmit the message through his teachings and philosophies.
His teachings were mostly about the subject of love and compassion for others.
He argued that to the only way to have such a compassion for others, was to deny yourself
and to be open to what other people are thinking.
Which meant meant that you should not act in any way that is inappropriate, unethical,
or dirty.
You should instead gather knowledge, interact with society, and become kind to others in
the best way that is humanly possible.
And this is clear from perhaps his most famous quote, a variation of the Golden Rule, which
states that: “What you do not wish for yourself, do not do onto others”.
Which I mean is a classic.
That’s why it’s called the Golden Rule.
Confucius also started a school where he began to teach to disciples what he had learnt over
the years.
He realized that he had a great influence over the Chinese people, that the people saw him
as very wise, and that they all could benefit from his teachings.
Which is a very good idea, because ideas like his weren’t so common in those days.
He was arguably the only one talking about such moral and ethical behaviors besides
the Buddha.
Which explains why his name is the one we all remember.
Following his death in the year 479 BC, Confucius was buried in his family’s tomb near his
place of birth and, over the following centuries, his status grew so much that he eventually became the
subject of worship in schools.
His teachings were later turned into elaborate set of rules and practices by his numerous
disciples and followers, who organized his teachings into books like the Analects, which
remember is one of the main sources of his life.
His disciples continued his philosophical school after his death and these efforts spread
his ideas to students who then eventually became officials in many of the royal courts
in China.
They then spread these ideas even further, and soon enough, everybody was hearing about
Confucius and his philosophies.
This eventually became what we now call Confucianism, which was the officially adopted Chinese political
ideology at the turn of the millennium.
This is a philosophy that grew so big in influence, that still remains very strong in China today.
But it also spread to the western world.
I mean, haven’t we all at least seen one quote by Confucius in our lives?
And that was a brief history lesson on Confucius and Confucianism.
I really, really hope that you’ve enjoyed this video and if you did, please leave it a big thumbs
up, make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell, because I do upload every single
Wednesday.
And now it’s time for questions.
What do you think about Confucius and his philosophy?
What's your favourite quote from him?
Please do leave me a comment I would love to read and answer them all, and bonus points
for you if you do leave a comment you might get featured in next week’s video as a fan
of the week!
As you know and say at the end of every video, I haven’t talked about everything regarding
Confucius and Confucianism.
That’s ok.
I'm actually doing this on purpose because I want you guys to go out and research more on your
own.
Because I believe in research and I believe in getting you guys educated on a subject.
So for those that want to learn more, as always, there will be some links in the description where
you can start!
With that being said, my name has been Darius Cosden, it’s been an absolute pleasure you
Thank you so much for watching this video, thank you for giving your time to this video,
and I will see you all next Wednesday!