Confucius, the social sage

Can humans live the life they want without antagonising others and infringing the rights of fellow beings? The great philosophers of western tradition such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle have shown us how to lead a meaningful life. On the other hand, oriental philosophers such as Jiddu Krishnamurti and Confucius too looked at life from their standpoint and more or less said the same thing: Lead a virtuous life.

Although Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Krishnamurti are household names, sometimes we tend to forget the immense contribution made to philosophy by the great Chinese philosopher Confucius who lived from 551 to 479 BCE. In fact, Confucius is the Latinised name of Kung Fu-Tzu or Master Kung.

Confucius was a legendary teacher who sought to reform society through political change. While the focus of many other philosophers was on the individual, Confucius, as a social sage, tried to promote social order based on humanism. He believed that political harmony rested on individual harmony. He expected the rulers to enforce moral conduct among the subjects. He demanded that kings should punish those who led immoral lives.

Complaint

During his lifetime Confucius failed to attract the attention of rulers to accept his views. One of his pupils complained to him that he could not describe Confucius to the king convincingly. Unperturbed by his pupil’s complaint, Confucius said, “Why didn’t you tell him that I am a man who forgets all worries when he is happy, and who is not aware that old age is coming on?”

Today many people like to criticise others especially in their absence. It has become a social malady. In his days Confucius too had a pupil who enjoyed criticising others and laughing at them. One day Confucius told him, “You’re very clever, aren’t you? I have no time for such things.” On another day he welcomed a group of undesirable men from a village. His pupils looked at him in surprise. To allay their fears and suspicion, Confucius said, “What concerns me is how they come and not what they do when they go away.”

While condemning hypocrites and calling them “goody-goody thieves” Confucius hailed good manners and social customs. In fact, he struck an elderly man on the shin with his walking stick for singing at the man’s mother’s funeral. That shows how he cared for social manners.

Great teacher

Like most of the other philosophers of the East and West, Confucius was a great teacher who devoted his whole life to teaching. Although he failed to attract kings and other rulers to his fold, Confucius had a large following wherever he went. Sometimes the numbers increased to more than 3,000 people. While teaching moral lessons to his followers he also catered to a special class of students known as gentlemen-scholars.

Even today many moral teachers address large audiences while teaching their lessons to a selected few. The gentlemen-scholars popularly known as literati dominated the Chinese history for a long time.

At 56 Confucius retired from civil service when he found that his superiors were not interested in his philosophy. Then he started travelling to different parts of the country in a desperate attempt to sell his social philosophy. Not only kings and rulers but also most ordinary men and women did not take his teachings seriously. As a result, Confucius became a dejected man when he turned 68. However, he continued to teach until his death in 479 BCE.

Moral chaos

Today Confucius stands tall as one of the great teachers of all time probably surpassing even Socrates. Confucius and Socrates were humane and modest philosophers. They had no passion for wealth and fame. Some time before his death, Confucius said, “For a long time the world has been living in moral chaos, and no ruler has been able to follow me.”

Leaning on his walking stick, Confucius used to sing, “Ah! the mountain is crumbling down! The pillar is falling down! The philosopher is passing out!” Probably Confucius was not referring only to himself but to all the philosophers down the ages!