Confucius Day

Today is Confucius Day — in honor of Confucius. You probably know that, among other things, Confucius was an early Chinese philosopher. Confucius was born in China on October 18, 551 B.C. and if not the first, certainly one of the earliest great philosophers of the world. He was also a teacher, scholar, and a politician. I read somewhere that there are 499 famous sayings that are contributed to Confucius.

It might not surprise you to learn that Confucius wasn’t his real name — it was Kong Qiu, and he was known as Master Kong. When he was living, his views were generally received with scorn. Following his death, a handful of his dedicated followers passed on Confucius’ teaching to future generations in the book, The Analects of Confucius.

It took many years after Confucius’ death for his philosophies to be appreciated, but today, Confucianism is an ethical school of thought adopted by many “thinkers” around the world. More and more followers of Confucianism are advocating a deeper study of his philosophies.

Over the years, many comical or humorous sayings have been created and referred to as sayings of Confucius. As a rule of thumb, if the saying is humorous, chances are it is not a true saying by the scholarly Confucius. You’ve probably heard some of these attributed to Confucius:
“Man who want pretty nurse, must be patient,” or “Man who leaps off cliff, jumps to conclusion,” or maybe “War does not determine who is right, war determines who is left.” These are all funny and clever, but they didn’t come from Confucius. 

Some of Confucius’ better know sayings include:
It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.
Real knowledge is to know the extend of one’s ignorance.
Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated.

So I’d say that one of the world’s greatest philosophers deserves his day. And, in fact, Confucius Day dates back thousands of years. I couldn’t find any information as to who actually came up with the idea, or why September 29th was chosen for the date. 
But no matter — one of Confucius’ most famous sayings is, “Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself. That’s good advice for all days.
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