If we take an overall view of Confucius’ life, three clear passions define his 73-year-long life journey: firstly, he pioneered China’s first non-government funded education system; secondly, he led a peripatetic existence with his band of disciples and believers, traveling around the various parts of the vast lands of the Chinese continent; thirdly, after he returned to the Lu State in his late years, he began to sort out and compile the ancient books left behind from previous generations, namely such classics of ancient China as The Spring and Autumn Annals, The Book of Songs and Shang Shu.
A popular Chinese proverb observes, “A man should stand on his own feet at thirty.” That is to say, when a man comes to thirty he should have formed his own opinions. The first to enunciate this idea was Confucius. The great philosopher also advocated what was then a revolutionary idea in the field of education; namely that in education there should be no distinction between classes of men. In other words, everyone in society should enjoy the right to an education.
In civilized society today, everyone is familiar with the word “education.” But some 2,500 years ago, education was the preserve of the aristocrat. In the spring of 522 BC, in a place named Xingtan, Chinese common people for the first time crossed the threshold of a school and stood before their teacher. That teacher was Confucius, a man who believed that education was a fundamental right for all people, rich and poor, high-born and low.
Irrespective of whether you were the son of a common family or of a scholar-bureaucrat, Confucius said you could go to school as long as you observed certain formalities These included, for instance, giving the teacher some small remuneration, like a piece of dried meat, and performing a ceremony of formally acknowledging the teacher as your teacher. Once these formalities had been carried out, social distinction melted away and noblemen and peasant became merely students.
From that time, many people, who had lost their land in the chaos caused by war, took Confucius as their teacher and became the inheritors and disseminators of his thoughts. In a very real sense one could say that it was just at this moment in history that Chinese non-governmental education first began.
One of the central tenets of Confucian education theory is the requirement for the individual to cultivate their moral character and then to establish a “benevolent and moral” country ultimately contributing to the realization of Great Harmony under heaven. It is clear for all to say how such an aspiration was clearly incorporated in Confucian teaching practice. This is the main reason why Confucius is regarded as a true giant and pioneer in the field of education.
Free discussion between students and teachers was greatly encouraged by Confucius. Indeed Analects of Confucius is in fact a collection of dialogues between Confucius and his disciples, during which it is clear that free exchange of ideas was taking place.
From this one could see Confucianism focus an attention to developing a practical moral philosophy which could regulate people’s behavior. You almost surely will become a “good man” if you behave yourself and deal with others in the way that Confucius taught. A great quality of Confucianism is that such profound thoughts about how to be a good person is expressed in such simple language.
In his era, the personal charm of Confucius and the moral power of his teaching had significant influence on people who sought to pursue truth, while his ideals were at the same time brought to even greater numbers of through his disciples. According to history, there were 72 disciples greatly favored by Confucius during his life and as many as 3,000 regular followers, which must have been a considerable force in a state of less than 10 million people.
The 3,000 disciples all became elites in all areas of life. It was these people who diffused the ideal that “the world would eventually return to a state of Ren.” This ideal and
its implications gradually became an important element in the ancient but free flowing river of Chinese civilization and culture.
