A tradition of ethics, ritual and learning drawn from the teachings of Confucius, stressing family duty, humane rule and the rites to ancestors and Heaven. Many call it a philosophy rather than a religion. Through schools and civil exams it shaped the states of China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam.
In 1392 the Ming sent Chinese families to Kume, by Naha, to run Ryukyu's tribute voyages; they brought Confucian learning and later built a temple to Confucius.
Symbol meaning
儒 (rú)
Confucianism has no emblem of its own. 儒, rú, was the word for the scholars who kept the rites and Confucius's teaching, and it names the tradition in Chinese: Rújiā, the school of the scholars, or Rújiào, their teaching. Others show it by the character for water, or by a portrait of Confucius.
Timeline
15 places in order of arrival: when the first believers came, from where and how; when it became the main faith there, and when it faded.
c. 500 BCE · Qufu
Confucius taught in Qufu, capital of the state of Lu, where his disciples gathered and his descendants kept his temple and rites for more than two thousand years.
200 BCE, main faith from 136 BCE · Chang'an
Shusun Tong, a scholar from Lu, devised the Han court's rites in 200 BCE; in 136 BCE Emperor Wu named masters of the Five Classics, and in 124 BCE he founded an imperial academy.
from Qufu · by mission
c. 136 BCE, main faith from 25 CE · Luoyang
Confucian scholars served in Luoyang under the Western Han; as the Eastern Han capital from 25 it held the Imperial Academy, and the Classics were cut in stone here from 175.
from Chang'an · by mission
111 BCE · Jiaozhi (Luy Lâu)
Han armies took the Red River delta in 111 BCE; Chinese governors brought Confucian schooling, and Shi Xie, who ruled Jiaozhi from Luy Lâu from 187 to 226, was honoured for his learning.
from Chang'an · by conquest
372 CE · Goguryeo (Gungnae)
King Sosurim of Goguryeo founded the Taehak, an academy teaching the Confucian classics to young nobles, at his capital in 372, the year Buddhism came from Former Qin.
from Chang'an · by mission
682 CE · Silla (Gyeongju)
Silla founded a national Confucian academy, the Gukhak, at its capital in 682 on Tang lines; Choe Chiwon and other Silla scholars later studied and passed the exams in Tang China.
from Chang'an · by mission
710 CE · Japan (Nara)
Japan's court academy taught the Confucian classics under the Taihō Code of 701; at Nara, Kibi no Makibi brought new texts and rites from Tang Chang'an in 735.
from Chang'an · by mission
1070, main faith from 1428 · Đại Việt (Thăng Long)
Lý Thánh Tông founded the Temple of Literature here in 1070, with a national academy in 1076; from 1428 the Lê kings made Neo-Confucian teaching the creed of the state and its exams.
from Luy Lâu · by mission
1183 · Wuyi Mountains
Zhu Xi, heir to the Cheng brothers of Luoyang, taught at his Wuyi retreat from 1183; his commentaries became the core of the civil exams from 1313 until the Qing ended them in 1905.
from Luoyang · by mission · Neo-Confucianism
c. 1392 · Ryukyu (Kume)
Families from Fujian, settled at Kume by tradition in 1392 on the Ming emperor's orders, served the Ryukyu kings as scholars and envoys; a Confucian temple was built for them in the 1670s.
from Wuyi Mountains · by migration
1394, at once the main faith · Joseon (Hanyang)
The Joseon kings, whose state was built on Zhu Xi's teaching, moved their capital here in 1394; Buddhism lost its standing, and the Seonggyungwan academy trained officials for the exams.
from Wuyi Mountains · by mission · Neo-Confucianism
1607 · Edo
Hayashi Razan, a pupil of Fujiwara Seika, who had learned from the captive Korean scholar Kang Hang, served the Tokugawa from 1607; Zhu Xi's teaching became the shogunate's orthodoxy in 1790.
from Hanyang · by mission · Neo-Confucianism
1665 · Taiwan (Tainan)
Chen Yonghua, minister of the Zheng regime, built Taiwan's first Confucian temple at Tainan in 1665; settlers from Fujian under the Qing spread its schools across the island.
from Wuyi Mountains · by conquest and migration
1819 · Singapore
Chinese settlers kept ancestral rites and clan temples from 1819; in the 1890s Lim Boon Keng and Khoo Seok Wan led a Confucian revival among the Straits Chinese.
from Wuyi Mountains · by migration
1900 · Batavia
In 1900 Chinese of Batavia founded the Tiong Hoa Hwe Koan to teach Confucian ethics; Confucianism (Khonghucu) is today one of the six religions Indonesia recognises.
from Singapore · by mission
Wonders
Wonders of the world on the atlas in the story of Confucianism: built for it, long used by it, or standing on its holy ground.
In 1392 the Ming sent Chinese families to Kume, by Naha, to run Ryukyu's tribute voyages; they brought Confucian learning and later built a temple to Confucius.
Symbol meaning
儒 (rú)
Confucianism has no emblem of its own. 儒, rú, was the word for the scholars who kept the rites and Confucius's teaching, and it names the tradition in Chinese: Rújiā, the school of the scholars, or Rújiào, their teaching. Others show it by the character for water, or by a portrait of Confucius.
Timeline
15 places in order of arrival: when the first believers came, from where and how; when it became the main faith there, and when it faded.
c. 500 BCE · Qufu
Confucius taught in Qufu, capital of the state of Lu, where his disciples gathered and his descendants kept his temple and rites for more than two thousand years.
200 BCE, main faith from 136 BCE · Chang'an
Shusun Tong, a scholar from Lu, devised the Han court's rites in 200 BCE; in 136 BCE Emperor Wu named masters of the Five Classics, and in 124 BCE he founded an imperial academy.
from Qufu · by mission
c. 136 BCE, main faith from 25 CE · Luoyang
Confucian scholars served in Luoyang under the Western Han; as the Eastern Han capital from 25 it held the Imperial Academy, and the Classics were cut in stone here from 175.
from Chang'an · by mission
111 BCE · Jiaozhi (Luy Lâu)
Han armies took the Red River delta in 111 BCE; Chinese governors brought Confucian schooling, and Shi Xie, who ruled Jiaozhi from Luy Lâu from 187 to 226, was honoured for his learning.
from Chang'an · by conquest
372 CE · Goguryeo (Gungnae)
King Sosurim of Goguryeo founded the Taehak, an academy teaching the Confucian classics to young nobles, at his capital in 372, the year Buddhism came from Former Qin.
from Chang'an · by mission
682 CE · Silla (Gyeongju)
Silla founded a national Confucian academy, the Gukhak, at its capital in 682 on Tang lines; Choe Chiwon and other Silla scholars later studied and passed the exams in Tang China.
from Chang'an · by mission
710 CE · Japan (Nara)
Japan's court academy taught the Confucian classics under the Taihō Code of 701; at Nara, Kibi no Makibi brought new texts and rites from Tang Chang'an in 735.
from Chang'an · by mission
1070, main faith from 1428 · Đại Việt (Thăng Long)
Lý Thánh Tông founded the Temple of Literature here in 1070, with a national academy in 1076; from 1428 the Lê kings made Neo-Confucian teaching the creed of the state and its exams.
from Luy Lâu · by mission
1183 · Wuyi Mountains
Zhu Xi, heir to the Cheng brothers of Luoyang, taught at his Wuyi retreat from 1183; his commentaries became the core of the civil exams from 1313 until the Qing ended them in 1905.
from Luoyang · by mission · Neo-Confucianism
c. 1392 · Ryukyu (Kume)
Families from Fujian, settled at Kume by tradition in 1392 on the Ming emperor's orders, served the Ryukyu kings as scholars and envoys; a Confucian temple was built for them in the 1670s.
from Wuyi Mountains · by migration
1394, at once the main faith · Joseon (Hanyang)
The Joseon kings, whose state was built on Zhu Xi's teaching, moved their capital here in 1394; Buddhism lost its standing, and the Seonggyungwan academy trained officials for the exams.
from Wuyi Mountains · by mission · Neo-Confucianism
1607 · Edo
Hayashi Razan, a pupil of Fujiwara Seika, who had learned from the captive Korean scholar Kang Hang, served the Tokugawa from 1607; Zhu Xi's teaching became the shogunate's orthodoxy in 1790.
from Hanyang · by mission · Neo-Confucianism
1665 · Taiwan (Tainan)
Chen Yonghua, minister of the Zheng regime, built Taiwan's first Confucian temple at Tainan in 1665; settlers from Fujian under the Qing spread its schools across the island.
from Wuyi Mountains · by conquest and migration
1819 · Singapore
Chinese settlers kept ancestral rites and clan temples from 1819; in the 1890s Lim Boon Keng and Khoo Seok Wan led a Confucian revival among the Straits Chinese.
from Wuyi Mountains · by migration
1900 · Batavia
In 1900 Chinese of Batavia founded the Tiong Hoa Hwe Koan to teach Confucian ethics; Confucianism (Khonghucu) is today one of the six religions Indonesia recognises.
from Singapore · by mission
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius in the Hundred Schools of Thought era (c. 500 BCE), Confucianism integrates philosophy, ethics, and social governance, with a core focus on virtue, social harmony, and familial responsibility.
Confucianism emphasizes virtue through self-cultivation and communal effort. Key virtues include rén (仁, "benevolence"), yì (義; "righteousness"), lǐ (禮; "propriety"), zhì (智; "wisdom"), and xìn (信; "sincerity"). These values, deeply tied to the notion of tiān (天; "Heaven"), present a worldview where human relationships and social order are manifestations of sacred moral principles. Although Confucianism does not emphasize an omnipotent deity, it upholds tiān as a transcendent moral order.
Confucius regarded himself as a transmitter of cultural values from the preceding Xia, Shang, and Western Zhou dynasties. Suppressed during the Legalist Qin dynasty (c. 200 BCE), Confucianism flourished under the Han dynasty (c. 130 BCE), displacing the proto-Taoist Huang–Lao tradition to become the dominant ideological framework, while blending with the pragmatic teachings of Legalism. The Tang dynasty (c. 600 CE) witnessed a response to the rising influence of Buddhism and Taoism in the development of Neo-Confucianism, a reformulated philosophical system that became central to the imperial examination system and the scholar-official class of the Song dynasty (c. 1000 CE).
The abolition of the imperial examination system in 1905 marked the decline of state-endorsed Confucianism. In the early 20th century, Chinese reformers came to associate Confucianism with China's "Century of Humiliation", and instead embraced alternative ideologies such as Sun Yat-sen's "Three Principles of the People" and later Maoism. Nevertheless, Confucianism endured as a cultural force, influencing East Asian economic and social structures into the modern era. Confucian work ethic was credited with the rise of the East Asian economy in the late twentieth century.
Confucianism remains influential in China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and regions with significant Chinese diaspora. A modern Confucian revival has gained momentum in academic and cultural circles, culminating in the establishment of a national Confucian Church in China in 2015, reflecting renewed interest in Confucian ideals as a foundation for social and moral values.
American philosopher Herbert Fingarette describes Confucianism as a philosophical system which regards "the secular as sacred".
Terminology
There is no term in Chinese which directly corresponds to "Confucianism". The closest catch-all term for Confucianism is the word rú (儒). Its literal meanings in modern Chinese include 'scholar', 'learned', or 'refined man'. In Old Chinese the word had a distinct set of meanings, including 'to tame', 'to mould', 'to educate', and 'to refine'. Several different terms, some of which with modern origin, are used in different situations to express different facets of Confucianism, including:
The terms that use ru do not use the name "Confucius" at all, but instead focus on the ideal of the Confucian man. The use of the term "Confucianism" has been avoided by some modern scholars, who favor "Ruism" and "Ruists" instead. Robert Eno argues that the term has been "burdened ... with the ambiguities and irrelevant traditional associations". Ruism, as he states, is more faithful to the original Chinese name for the school.
The term "Traditionalist" has been suggested by David Schaberg to emphasize the connection to the past, its standards, and inherited forms, in which Confucius himself placed so much importance. This translation of the word ru is followed by e.g. Yuri Pines.
According to Zhou Youguang, ru originally referred to shamanic methods of holding rites and existed before Confucius's times, but with Confucius it came to mean devotion to propagating such teachings to bring civilisation to the people.
Five Classics and the Confucian vision
Traditionally, Confucius was thought to be the author or editor of the Five Classics which were the basic texts of Confucianism, all edited into their received versions around 500 years later by Imperial Librarian Liu Xin. The scholar Yao Xinzhong allows that there are good reasons to believe that Confucian classics took shape in the hands of Confucius, but that "nothing can be taken for granted in the matter of the early versions of the classics". The sixth classic similar to the Classic of Poetry was the Classic of Music. It was lost during the Han dynasty. Music carried an invaluable tool to induce focus in performing rituals. These were the internal (music) and external (rites) keys to harmonizing society. Yao suggests that most modern scholars hold the "pragmatic" view that Confucius and his followers did not intend to create a system of classics, but nonetheless "contributed to their formation".
The scholar Tu Weiming explains these classics as embodying "five visions" which underlie the development of Confucianism:
I Ching (Classic of Change or Book of Changes), generally held to be the earliest of the classics, shows a metaphysical vision which combines divinatory art with numerological technique and ethical insight; philosophy of change sees cosmos as interaction between the two energies yin and yang; universe always shows organismic unity and dynamism.
Classic of Poetry or Book of Songs is the earliest anthology of Chinese poems and songs, with the earliest strata antedating the Zhou conquest. It shows the poetic vision in the belief that poetry and music convey common human feelings and mutual responsiveness.
Book of Documents or Book of History is a compilation of speeches of major figures and records of events in ancient times, embodying the political vision and addressing the kingly way in terms of the ethical foundation for humane government. The documents show the sagacity, filial piety, and work ethic of mythical sage-emperors Yao, Shun, and Yu, who established a political culture which was based on responsibility and trust. Their virtue formed a covenant of social harmony which did not depend on punishment or coercion.
Book of Rites describes the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty. This social vision defined society not as an adversarial system based on contractual relations but as a network of kinship groups bound by cultural identity and ritual practice, socially responsible for one another and the transmission of proper antique forms. The four functional occupations are cooperative (farmer, scholar, artisan, merchant).
Spring and Autumn Annals chronicles the period to which it gives its name, Spring and Autumn period (771–481 BC), from the perspective of Confucius's home state of Lu. These events emphasise the significance of collective memory for communal self-identification, for reanimating the old is the best way to attain the new.
Doctrines
Theory and theology
Confucianism revolves around the pursuit of the unity of the individual self and tian ("heaven"), or the relationship between humanity and heaven. The principle or way of Heaven (tian li or tian tao) is the order of the world and the source of divine authority. Tian li or tian tao is monistic, meaning that it is singular and indivisible. Individuals may realise their humanity and become one with Heaven through the contemplation of such order. This transformation of the self is extended to family and society to create a harmonious community. Joël Thoraval studied Confucianism as a diffused civil religion in contemporary China, finding that it expresses itself in the widespread worship of five cosmological entities: Heaven and Earth (地; dì), the sovereign or the government (君; jūn), ancestors (親; qīn), and masters (師; shī).
According to the scholar Stephan Feuchtwang, in Chinese cosmology, which is not merely Confucian but shared by many Chinese religions, "the universe creates itself out of a primary chaos of material energy" (hundun and qi), and is organized through the polarity of yin and yang that characterises any thing and life. Creation is therefore a continuous ordering; it is not creation ex nihilo. "Yin and yang are the invisible and visible, the receptive and the active, the unshaped and the shaped; they characterise the yearly cycle (winter and summer), the landscape (shady and bright), the sexes (female and male), and even sociopolitical history (disorder and order). Confucianism is concerned with finding "middle ways" between yin and yang at every new configuration of the world."
Confucianism conciliates both the inner and outer polarities of spiritual cultivation—that is to say self-cultivation and world redemption—in the ideal of "sageliness within and kingliness without". Ren, translated as "humaneness" or the essence proper of a human being, is the character of compassionate mind; it is the virtue endowed by Heaven and at the same time the means by which a person may achieve oneness with Heaven by comprehending their origin in Heaven, and therefore divine essence. In his work The Book of Great Unity (大同書), late Qing dynasty reformer Kang Youwei considered ren as the means "to form one body with all things" and one can find ren "when the self and others are not separated... and when compassion is aroused".
"Lord Heaven" and "Jade Emperor" were terms for a Confucianist supreme deity who was an anthropomorphizedtian, and some conceptions of it thought of the two names as synonymous.
Tian and the gods
Tian, a key concept in Chinese thought, refers to the God of Heaven, the northern culmen of the skies and its spinning stars, earthly nature and its laws which come from Heaven, to 'Heaven and Earth' (that is, "all things"), and to the awe-inspiring forces beyond human control. There are so many uses in Chinese thought that it is impossible to give a single English translation.
Confucius used the term in a mystical way. He wrote in the Analects (7.23) that tian gave him life, and that tian watched and judged (6.28; 9.12). In 9.5 Confucius says that a person may know the movements of tian, and this provides with the sense of having a special place in the universe. In 17.19 Confucius says that tian spoke to him, though not in words. The scholar Ronnie Littlejohn warns that tian was not to be interpreted as a personal god comparable to that of the Abrahamic faiths, in the sense of an otherworldly or transcendent creator. Rather it is similar to what Taoists meant by Dao: "the way things are" or "the regularities of the world", which Stephan Feuchtwang equates with the ancient Greek concept of physis, "nature" as the generation and regenerations of things and of the moral order. Tian may also be compared to the Brahman of Hindu and Vedic traditions. The scholar Promise Hsu, in the wake of Robert B. Louden, explained 17:19 ("What does Tian ever say? Yet there are four seasons going round and there are the hundred things coming into being. What does Tian say?") as implying that even though Tian is not a "speaking person", it constantly "does" through the rhythms of nature, and communicates "how human beings ought to live and act", at least to those who have learnt to carefully listen to it.
Duanmu Ci, a disciple of Confucius, said that Tian had set the master on the path to become a wise man (9.6). In 7.23 Confucius says that he has no doubt left that Tian gave him life, and from it he had developed right virtue (de). In 8.19, he says that the lives of the sages are interwoven with Tian.
Regarding personal gods (shen, energies who emanate from and reproduce Tian) enliving nature, in the Analects Confucius says that it is appropriate (yi) for people to worship (敬; jìng) them, although only through proper rites (li), implying respect of positions and discretion. Confucius himself was a ritual and sacrificial master.
Answering to a disciple who asked whether it is better to sacrifice to the god of the stove or to the god of the family (a popular saying), in 3.13 Confucius says that in order to appropriately pray to gods, one should first know and respect Heaven. In 3.12, he explains that religious rituals produce meaningful experiences, and one has to offer sacrifices in person, acting in presence, otherwise "it is the same as not having sacrificed at all". Rites and sacrifices to the gods have an ethical importance: they generate good life, because taking part in them leads to the overcoming of the self. Analects 10.11 tells that Confucius always took a small part of his food and placed it on the sacrificial bowls as an offering to his ancestors.
Some Confucian movements worship Confucius, although not as a supreme being or anything else approaching the power of tian or the tao, and/or gods from Chinese folk religion. These movements are not a part of mainstream Confucianism, although the boundary between Chinese folk religion and Confucianism can be blurred.
Other movements, such as Mohism which was later absorbed by Taoism, developed a more theistic idea of Heaven. Feuchtwang explains that the difference between Confucianism and Taoism primarily lies in the fact that the former focuses on the realisation of the starry order of Heaven in human society, while the latter on the contemplation of the Dao which spontaneously arises in nature. However, Confucianism does venerate many aspects of nature and also respects various tao, as well as what Confucius saw as the main tao, the "[Way] of Heaven."
The Way of Heaven involves "lifelong and sincere devotion to traditional cultural forms" and wu wei, "a state of spontaneous harmony between individual inclinations and the sacred Way".
Kelly James Clark argued that Confucius himself saw Tian as an anthropomorphic god that Clark hypothetically refers to as "Heavenly Supreme Emperor", although most other scholars on Confucianism disagree with this view.
