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Hourly History

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Confucius: A Life From Beginning to End (History of China) Paperback – August 30, 2017

by Hourly History (Author)

4.2 395 ratings

Part of: History of China (10 books)

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When Confucius spoke, people listened, and they still listen today. The wisdom of this Chinese philosopher, teacher, politician, and writer still rings as true today as it did over 2,000 years ago. Who was the legend who has become revered as a sage throughout the ages? To put it shortly, he was a simple man. Confucius was born into poverty, but at an early age he came to value education, integrity, and moral behavior. He developed the knowledge to become a teacher by his early 30s. He also developed an ethical code that valued, above all else, personal integrity, ethical behavior, ritual propriety, and compassion. Throughout his brief political career and his long journey afterward, he sought to spread his philosophy in the hopes that it would be adopted as political policy. While his political goals were not realized in his lifetime, his philosophy would live long after he died. This book tells the story of the life of the world-renowned philosopher and scholar, and it describes the tenets of his philosophy in a succinct manner which is packed with information.

Part of series

History of China
Print length

43 pages
Language

English
Publication date

August 30, 2017
Dimensions

6 x 0.1 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1974519465
ISBN-13

978-1974519460
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Jonathan Clements
26
Paperback
18 offers from $2.96

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (August 30, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 43 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1974519465
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1974519460
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.57 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.1 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,310,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #402 in Historical China Biographies
- #1,725 in Philosopher Biographies
- #4,284 in Chinese History (Books)

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4.2 395 ratings

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James E. Barr

I thought I knew about Confucius!

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2021

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This quick-read, detailed book on Confucius was full of surprises for me. Since his is such a commonly quoted name, I mistakenly thought I knew about him. The drama of his life, his changing positions professionally, his changing status and the following centuries of telling his story were things I had no idea about. He is at the same time more mundane and more interesting than I imagined. I am not a big fan of Chinese history, focussing mostly on the Italian culture, but this caught my attention from the first chapter. If you've even superficially read an overview of China, you know how complicated the different dynasties evolved. This book explains a good part of that story as it follows Confucius' path around the schools and courts of China. Recommended.

One person found this helpful

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Jung "Young" Dalton Parkims

The work exhibits many flaws, but it's a fine read with lots of lessons

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2023

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I’d say it was a “meaningful” read, and I do recommend readers to pick up and open this opportunity for some quality time of "Human-pondering."

(Kindle Edition, locations 244-246)
“By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” —Confucius

(Kindle Ed., locs. 247-249)
...Confucius essentially believed in the perfectibility of humans. He felt that humans were subject to a destiny preordained by a supreme being and the fixed cycles of nature, but he also firmly believed that people are responsible for their behavior and their treatment of others...

(Kindle Ed., locs. 249-250)
...While they might not be able to change the fate that Heaven has for them, they could affect what they are able to accomplish with their lives, and therefore, how they are remembered.

It was the same as the Protestant Christianity.

(Kindle Ed., locs. 255-260)
Confucius also claimed that he had a special, privileged relationship with Heaven and that by the age of 50, he understood what it was that Heaven had preordained for his life as well as for mankind. For this reason, Confucius carefully instructed his followers that they should never neglect the offerings they were required to give to Heaven. The Analects reveal that Confucius had a deep reverence and respect for the spirits that resided in Heaven. For this reason, he believed they should be worshipped with sincerity. He taught his disciples that serving these spirits was far more complicated than serving mortals. His philosophy, therefore, stressed the importance of paying homage to the supreme being.

Just like the early figures of Judaism and Christianity did.

(Kindle Ed., locs. 306-310)
According to the Mandate of Heaven, the ruler received a mandate to rule from Heaven, which encompassed the natural order and will of the universe. Given this, if a ruler was ousted, it meant that the ruler had somehow become unworthy, thereby losing the mandate. Additionally, natural disasters that occurred during the ruler’s reign signaled Heaven’s displeasure. In Chinese history, there were often revolts following a major disaster since the citizens believed that the ruler had lost Heaven’s mandate to rule.

No matter how wise the man must have been for his time, he was still one of the “innocent” ancient figures with lack of knowledge in our modern natural science, duh.

(Kindle Ed., locs. 221-223)
While the Qin Dynasty abandoned Confucianism, the succeeding Han and Tang Dynasties not only adopted the philosophy but under the rule of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (141-87 BCE), Confucianism was made the official imperial philosophy. The texts were required reading for civil service applicants in 140 BCE, and this requirement continued until the nineteenth century...

Not only in China, but also in the whole "Confvci'vs World" including my homeland Korea. Later in the early-4th century CE, Constantin'vs the Great would become like Han Wu-dæ (Wu-emeperor) of the West.

(Kindle Ed., loc. 139)
It was this familial model that Confucius applied to his political philosophy. Confucius conceived of the ruler as the son of heaven and the father of the people.

Confucius was the man whose idea became the very base of the societies in “so-called” the East Asia, just like the author[ity]s of Bible (Baeb-ur: Words-collection) in the West.

The man and his philosophy, despite his many flaws as he was one of us, an "imperfect" Human Being after all, at least had good intentions for all "mankind under the Heaven (Tianxia)," which was in his world (mind'/ ment'ality) all the warring states of the "whole kingdom" of Zhou.

This is a fine read with a lot of lessons to learn, and I can see that the author did his research homework, but unfortunately the work still exhibits many flaws.

Location 10 on Kindle edition is like the 1st page of a paperback, and that’s where the first error’s found. The book starts with an error, but all-in-all NOT that many errors are found throughout the pages compared to other books of the same author I’ve recently read, and so I will quickly share them here first.

(Kindle Ed., locs. 10-11)
...how did he come to be viewed the world over as a sage whose maxims are still commonly quoted over 2,000 years after his death?

Correction: ...how did he come to be viewed by the world as a sage whose maxims are still commonly quoted over 2,000 years after his death?

(Kindle Ed., loc. 262)
...He also felt that to cultivate compassion for others; one had to be self-deprecating...

Why a semi-colon there?

(Kindle Ed., locs. 18-19)
...These include the Classic of Poetry, theBook of Documents, the Book of Rites, theI Ching or Book of Changes, and the Spring and Autumn Annals mentioned before.

A space please, each one required between the definite article “the” and the following book titles “Book of Documents” and “I Ching.”

And why only the Book of Changes got its title “I Ching” (also spelled “Yi Jing”) in Chinese mentioned in the list? One last editing work would have caught this issue.

(Kindle Ed., locs. 22-23)
...He advocated for a government that rules by rites and the natural morality of humans, rather than bribery and coercion...

Correction: ...He was an advocate for a government...

(or)

...He advocated a government...

(Kindle Ed., locs. 23-28)
...Because of his growing reputation due to his role in teaching these philosophies, Confucius was appointed to a minor position of governor of a town, where he sought to restore the legitimate rule of the state to the duke of Lu, from whom power had been seized in 505 BCE. He was ultimately unsuccessful in these efforts, and after the duke had misbehaved, he made the decision to leave his homeland. Confucius’ philosophy, however, would not allow him to bring public humiliation to the duke, and so he waited for the ruler to make a lesser mistake which he then used as an excuse for his self-exile.

Wait, what? So, the Duke of Lu was a victim of a political conflict or a civil war? And Confucius was ultimately “unsuccessful” in reinstituting his legitimate rule, c’est ça? And then Confucius decided to leave his homeland, the Dukedom of Lu, when the Duke (reinstituted?) had misbehaved? Pretty con-fus’ing, isn’t it?

(Kindle Ed., locs. 69-71)
...Confucius was raised in poverty despite being the descendant of Shang dynasty kings. Those kings, however, like Confucius and his family, were also poverty stricken by that time.

Why does the writer think the Dukes, while practically independent with total autonomy in their hands, couldn't dethrone the Zhou Ro'y-al Family? What "Shang" Kings under Zhou Dynasty with the Mandate of Heaven in the hands of the King of Zhou (the Son of Heaven (Tian-zi))? I don't think the writer really knows what Shang Dynasty was.

(Kindle Ed., locs. 218-221)
...The disagreement between the two philosophies came to a head when the Qin state conquered China in 223 BCE. Qin Shi Huang decided to abandon Confucian philosophy in favor of Legalism, and when Confucian advisors argued their point, Li Si, the Prime Minister of the Qin Dynasty, had many of them killed and their books burned. This marked a major setback for Confucianism.

The country's known as China or Qina because of Chin (Qin) Empire of China's-first-emperor (Chin-xi-ho'ang[jae] or Qin-shi-huang[di]).

(Kindle Ed., locs. 226-227)
During the Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE), ideas from Daoism and Buddhism were added to Confucianism by the scholar Zhu Xi who lived during the twelfth century CE...

Yeah, this guy reiterated the philosophy of the world order to fight the humiliation under Jin invasion of Song. It was a shame that a Chinese nation (Song Empire at the time) lost its capital and two Emperors to the "barb'aric" riders from the Steppes, who founded the Jin Empire, known as the Northen Chinese Empire; the writer calls and spells the country "Chin" and claims in his “books (not one book)” that it was the source of the modern national title "China."

Ask the “Han-majority” Chinese who General YUE Fei of Song Empire was. He was a Chinese hero who fought against the people the Han-Chinese did NOT consider as one of them until the Boxer Rebellion in 1899.

(Kindle Ed., locs. 227-228)
...During his life, his writings were largely ignored, but after his death, they were adopted as valid interpretations of what the Confucian texts meant...

ZHU Xi's Neo-confucianism: Yeah, because in the 13th century South Song needed that philosophy of the "proud" Chinese nation as the center of the world order more than ever before under the Mongol invasion (so embarrassing "after" the Jin (Kim) invasion) and a total collapse of the empire, while having promised the people that the ruling Song dyansty would restore its lost territory around the significant Yellow Riverbank.

It was just like the very first Old Testament written under the humiliating Neo-babylonian invasion of Israel.

You can read the full review at "Young H. D. Kim's Blog: Gibraltar, Suez, Panama, Malacca and Bering."

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Jim Spencer

Still Quoted, Still to be Admired

Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2017

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Pretty well written book on someone most people recognize as a person with wisdom. In fact, most people when quoting Confucius, tend to related to his sayings as words of wisdom. The most striking thing about the man is his quest to spread a sense of moral and upright behavior beginning from the home and reaching out to one's public life, whether it be workplace or involvement in governing! Though he never sold that philosophy to government leaders, his influence was undeniable. It would pay for our world leaders to adopt such philosophy and maybe we's have less corruption and more honest leadership! For me, Confucius's only real failure was in his lack of a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2020

Verified Purchase

This whole series "Hourly History" of books are just kind of okay. If you are into history and spend a lot of time in waiting rooms, buses or other places without wifi service, they can be a godsend.

They all read pretty much like freshman term papers, not great literature, but readable and informative. They are not terribly well edited, with typos and grammar mistakes, but for the price you can't beat them. They are meant to be read from your Kindle app in about an hour and are good for those places where you can't get online. You do have to start reading somewhere with service though, the book is downloaded when you start reading NOT when you buy it, so be aware of that. I discovered this after buying several for a long plane trip and discovering I didn't really have them!

So anyway, just fine, just don't expect too much scholarship or depth.

One person found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Interesting

Reviewed in Canada on September 16, 2021

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I liked it because I learned something new. I learned that Confucius taught that virtue will produce shame when virtue is compromised. But when rules are broken by persons without virtue no shame is produced. And the former is preferable to the latter.