The great Chinesse philosopher Confucious was the first man to develop a system of beliefs syntheisizing the basic ideas of the Chinesse people. His philosophy, based on personal morality and on the concept of a government that served its people and ruled by moral example, permeated Chinese life and culture for well over two thousand years, and has greatly infleunced a substantial portion of the world's population. Confucious was born about 551BC, in the small state of Lu, which is in the present province of Shantung, in northeastern China. His father died when he was quite young, and Confucious and his mother lived in poverty. As a young man, the future philosopher served as a minor government official, but after several years he resigned his post. He spent the next sixteen years teaching,attracting a considerable number of disciples to his philosophy. When he was about fifty years old, he was awarded a high position in the government of Lu; however, after about four years, enemies at court brought about his dismissal, and, indeed, his exile from the state. He spent the next thirteen years as an itinerant teacher, and then returned to his home state for the last five years of his life. He died in 479BC. Confucious is often credited as the founder of a religion , but this description is innaccurate. He very rarely refered to the Deity, refused to discuss the afterlife, avoided all forms of metaphysical speculation. He was basically a secular philosopher, interested in personal and political morality and conduct. The two most important virtues, according to Confucious are jen and li, and the superior man guides his conduct by them. Jen has sometimes been translated as "love", but it might better be defined as "benevolent concern for ones fellow men". Li describes a combination of manners, ritual,custom,etiquette,and propriety. Ancestor worship, the basic Chinesse religion even before Confucious, was reinforced by the strong emphasis that he placed on family loyalty and respect for one's parents. Confucious also taught that respect and obedience were owned by wives to their husbands and by subjects to their rulers. But the Chinese sage did not approve of tyranny. He believed that the state exists for the benefit of the people, not vice versa, and he repeatedly stressed that a ruler should govern primarily by moral example rather than by force. Another of his tenents was a slight variant of the Golden Rule: "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." Confucious's basic outlook was highly conservative. He believed that the Golden Age was in the past, and he urged both rulers and people to return to the good old moral standards. In fact, however, the Confucian ideal of government by moral example had not been the prevailing practice in earlier times, and Confucious was therefore more innovative reformer than he claimed to be. Confucious lived during the Chou dynasty, a period of great intellectual ferment in China. Contemporay rulers did not accept his program, but after his death his ideas spread widely throughout the country. However, with the advent of the Ch'in dynasty, in 221BC, Confuciounism fell upon evil days. The first emperor of the Ch'in dynasty, Shih Huang Ti, was determined to eradicate Confucious's infleunce, and to make a clean break with the past. He ordered the supression of Confucian teachings and the burning of all Confucian books. This attempt at suppression was unsucessful, and when the Ch'in dynasty came to a close a thew years later, Confucian scholars were again free to teach their doctrine. During the suceeding dynasty, the Han (206BC-220AD), Confucianism became established as the official Chinesse state philosophy. Starting with the Han dynasty, Chinesse emperors gradually developed the practice of selecting government officials by means of civil service examinations. In the course of time these examinations came to be based to a large extent on a knowledge of the Confucian classics. Since entry into the government bureaucracy was the main route to a financial sucess and social prestige in the Chinesse empire, the civil service examinations were extremely competitive. Consequently, for generations a large number of the most intelligent and ambitious young men in China devoted many years to intensive study of the Confucian classics, and, for many centuries the entire civil administration of China was composed of persons whose basic outlook had been permeated by the Confucian philosophy. This system endured in China (with some interruptions) for roughly two thousand years, from about 100BC to about 1900AD. But Confucianism was not merely the official philosophy of the Chinesse administration. Confucian ideals were accepted by the majority of the Chinesse people, and for over two thousand years deeply infleunced their life and thought. There are several reasons for Confucious enormous appeal to the Chinesse. First, his personal sincerity and integrity were beyond question. Second, he was a moderate and practical person, and did not demand of men what they could not achieve. If he asked them to be honourable, he did not except them to be saintly. In this regard as in others, he reflected the practical temperament of the Chinesse people. And this perhaps, was the key to the immense sucess that his ideas achieved in China. Confucious was not asking the Chinesse to change their basic beliefs. Rather , he was restating, in clear and impressive form, their basic traditional ideals. Perhaps no philosopher in history has been so closely in touch with the fundamental views of his countrymen as Confucious. Confuciounism, which stresses the obligations of individuals rather than their rights, may seem rather stodgy and unappealing by current Western standard. As a philosphy of government, though, it proved remarkably effective in practice. Judged on the basis of its ability to maintain internal peace and prosperity, China, for a period of two thousand years, was on the average the best-governed region on earth. The ideals of Confucious, closely grounded as they are in Chinesse culture, have not been widely infleuntial outside East Asia. They have, however, had a major impact in Korea and Japan, both of which have been greatly infleunced by Chinesse culture. At the present time, Confuciounism is in low estate in China. The Chinesse Communists, in an effort to break completely with the past, have vigorously attacked Confucious and his doctrines, and it is possible that the period of his infleunce upon history has drawn to a close. In the past, however, the ideas of Confucius have proven to be very deeply rooted within China, and we should not be surprised if there is a resurgence of Confucianism in the course of the next century.