Confucius

Confucius, known in Chinese as Kongzi (“Master Kong”), was a teacher and thinker from the small state of Lu, in today’s Shandong province, who lived about 2,500 years ago. He taught that good government and a good life grow from personal virtue, respect within the family, proper ritual and constant study, and his followers collected his sayings in the Analects. From the Han dynasty onward his teachings became the foundation of state ideology and education, and for many centuries officials were chosen through examinations on the Confucian classics, until these were abolished in 1905. Almost every old Chinese city had a Confucius temple, often with a school beside it, where scholars honoured him in the main Dacheng Hall (“Hall of Great Achievement”). The largest is in his hometown, Qufu, where his temple, his family’s mansion and his cemetery are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.