How much influence did Confucius have in the world?

Confucianism went beyond China as early as the Han and Tang dynasties, radiating to Southeast and Northeast Asia, forming the "Confucian Cultural Circle". It occupies an important position in the history of the development of human civilization.

Confucius founded Confucianism is not only the main component of Chinese traditional culture, which contains the great spirit of the Chinese nation, but also the cultural tradition and civilization spirit of the East Asian region, which occupies a very important position in the history of world thought and the history of world civilization.

Many scholars believe that Confucian culture, represented by Confucius, has spread far and wide overseas without relying on force, radiating to neighboring countries and forming a vast Confucian cultural circle, covering more than a quarter of the entire human population. Confucius culture spread to Europe in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, causing a great shock. The Chinese civil service system was transformed by the Europeans into the Western civil service system;

Confucius and Confucianism also inspired European Enlightenment thinkers, and played an active role in the Enlightenment: France's Holbach advocated the replacement of Christianity with Confucian morality, and Diderot believed that the Chinese nation's history, art, wisdom, politics, and philosophical interest were invariably superior to that of all nations;

Voltaire believed that Confucianism was the best and most rational philosophy for human beings, and wrote "Do not do unto others what you do not want" into the earliest French Declaration of Human Rights and Citizenship; Leibniz advocated that Chinese and European cultures should be integrated with each other and communicated with each other;

Wolfe advocated that Christianity should be supplemented by a Confucian ethic, and that the dialectic of spirituality used in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit coincided with the dialectic of the Chinese Confucian classic The Great Learning. The dialectic used in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit coincides with that of the Chinese Confucian classic The Great Learning; Feuerbach, drawing on Confucius' idea of "Do not do unto others what you do not want", emphasizes reasonable self-restraint for oneself and love for others, and seeks to extend this ethic to the family, the group, the community, the nation, and the state.

Expanded Information

Confucius constructed a complete ideological system of the "Way of Virtue": at the individual level, he advocated the virtues of benevolence and propriety, as well as virtuous behavior. The ideological system of "virtue" is based on the theory of goodness of nature ("one yin and one yang is called the Way, which is followed by goodness, which is followed by nature"), with the establishment of the human pole ("the Way of the Three Poles") as the ultimate goal, and with the methodology that humanism is compatible with the Way of Heaven and the Way of the Earth, and that humanism is mediocre and appropriate for the times.

Confucius was the first person to be recognized by the Chinese government for his work in this field.

Confucius's Ren embodies the spirit of humanism, and Confucius's Ritual embodies the spirit of ritual, i.e., order and system in the modern sense. Humanitarianism, which is the eternal theme of mankind, is applicable to any society, any era, and any government, while order and system society is the basic requirement for the establishment of a civilized human society.

This humanitarianism and spirit of order of Confucius is the essence of ancient Chinese socio-political thought.

Confucius founded a moral doctrine centered on benevolence, and he himself was a very kind person, compassionate and helpful, treating others with sincerity and generosity. "Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you," "A gentleman is a man of beauty, not a man of evil," "To be generous to oneself, but not to others," and so on, were his guidelines for being a man of honor.

The son said: "I am ten and five, and ambition to learn, thirty and stand, forty and not confused, fifty and know the fate of heaven, sixty and ears, seventy and from the heart, not over the rule." This is Confucius' summary of the stages of his life.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Confucius