Confucius Day

What the day is

Confucius Day marks the birth of Kong Qiu, known in the West by the Latinized name Confucius, who was born in the state of Lu in what is now Shandong province around 551 BCE. In Taiwan the anniversary is kept on September 28 and doubles as Teachers' Day, which is the most direct expression of what he is remembered for.

He was a teacher first. Confucius held minor official posts, spent years traveling in search of a ruler willing to apply his ideas, and largely failed at the political career he wanted. His influence came from his students.

Origin and background

His thought centers on conduct rather than metaphysics. The recurring concerns are ren, usually rendered as humaneness or benevolence, and li, the rituals and forms of proper behavior, along with filial duty, the obligations that bind families and rulers, and the conviction that character is cultivated through study and practice rather than inherited.

He wrote no book himself. The Analects is a collection of sayings and exchanges compiled by followers after his death in 479 BCE, which is why so much of it reads as fragments of conversation. Later thinkers, Mencius and Xunzi among them, developed the ideas in different directions, and from the Han dynasty onward Confucian texts formed the backbone of the imperial examination system, which tied the philosophy directly to government for centuries.

One caution worth carrying: the vast majority of the humorous lines circulating as "Confucius says" are inventions of twentieth-century Western joke writing and have no connection to him at all.

How to take part

• Read the Analects. It is short, and a good modern translation with notes is far more approachable than its reputation suggests.
• Thank a teacher. In the places that observe the anniversary formally, that is the main activity.
• Check a quotation before repeating it. Most attributed sayings online are fabricated.
• Read something about the period rather than only the man. The Warring States context explains why his arguments about order mattered so much.