Confucius refused to support the attacks, as he believed in nonviolence. Unfortunately, this left the city vulnerable to attack, and the city was attacked by the government from a neighboring province. Because Confucius was morally opposed to violent revolution, he worked through diplomacy to convince each family to tear down their strongholds. Confucius sought to remove power from three wealthy families in the Lu province in order to make the centralized government more powerful. Therefore, when the political groups in power were not advocates of the Way, Confucius sought to remove them from power. He worked for his entire life to spread the teachings of the Way, or the Tao, and sought to do so through political office.

Much of Confucius’s life was spent in political office.

Confucius died of natural causes in his early 70s. He continued with his teachings and returned to his home state at the age of 68, where he dedicated himself to teaching his disciples, who numbered around 70. Shortly after, continuing to disagree politically with Lu’s powerful politicians, Confucius exiled himself in the neighboring state of Qi. However, believing that the family in rule in the state of Lu had unethically taken power from the former duke, Confucius participated in a failed rebellion against the family. He later was promoted to Minister of Crime in that same province. Around 500 B.C.E., he had acquired significant recognition for these teachings and was appointed governor of a small town in his province. As a young man, Confucius is said to have worked in various government posts, while informally giving philosophical and ethical teachings.

Of these, he went on to champion the rites and music in his philosophical teachings. As a child, Confucius belonged to a social class between the aristocrats and the commoners, and he went to a school for commoners where he learned the six arts: the rites (common cultural practices), music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics. He was then raised by his mother, and at 19, he married and had three children. Confucius’s father is thought to have been an army commander who died when Confucius was three years old. While the Analects of Confucius were likely written by Confucius’s disciples years after his death, they center on the teachings of the Chinese philosopher and sage, Confucius.

Confucius and the analects