In modern-day China, there is a city named Qufu, located in the southwest of Shandong Province. This is the birthplace and home of Confucius. Some 2,500 years ago, the city served as the capital of a small state, known as the State of Lu, which was widely recognized at the time as a land of great ceremony and propriety.
In present-day China, an 80-year-old woman receives congratulations on her birthday. She is Kong Lingren, the 76th-generation lineal granddaughter of Confucius. During Kong Lingren’s birthday celebrations, as indeed with many Chinese, great importance is attached to seniority in making arrangement of seats for guests, just as it would have been done 76 generations before with her distant ancestor Confucius, whose teachings brought such practices into being.
In Madam Kong Lingren, we have a living witness and successor to the life and beliefs of Confucius’ life. In the Confucian view of the family, a man is judged on the basis of his behavior towards his parents and elder relatives—the doctrine of filial piety is one of the most important elements of Confucianism.
In the Confucian family, it is seen as axiomatic that the young should respect the old, a doctrine shared by most belief systems. However, some Confucian ideas about daily life may be more difficult for people today to understand. For instance, it is a tenet of Confucianism that children mustn’t begin their meal before adults have first eaten. In the Confucan family elders always enjoy priority in every aspect of life.
Confucianism also has much to say on the issue of interpersonal communication. When a pupil comes home after class, he is expected to visit every member in the house, beginning with the eldest and continuing on to the second eldest and so on. For thousands of years, generation after generation of Chinese were thoroughly imbued with such Confucian beliefs from a very early age.
It is undoubtedly true that the emphasis on ceremony and propriety that is so central to Confucianism can be traced back to Confucius’ experiences as a child.
Legends abound of how, when Confucius was still a child, he became attached to ceremony and propriety. The game he gained most pleasure from was to arrange plates and bowls, in an effort to imitate the adults who would ritualistically arrange such items in order to worship the Heavens and their ancestors. Confucius was also a keen trumpeter, not least because those who played the trumpet at weddings and funerals very often could receive dried meat for their services.
“Propriety” and “music,” the two passions of his childhood, which came about because of family circumstances, would become two of the most centrally important elements in Confucius’ later life.
In the shadow of Mt. Niqiushan is a little village named Luyuancun. It is a common, rural Chinese village, much like any other, but it was in this place that a divine life came into the world in 551 BC. Before his birth, Confucius’ parents came to worship at the nearby Mt. Niqiushan and prayed for a son. Their prayers were answered. Eager to show their gratitude to the deity who had bestowed such favor on them, they named the little boy Qiu, with the additional name Zhongni.
The little boy would forever be known by another name however: Confucius.
According to the custom of naming boys in ancient China, successive sons would be called Bo, Zhong, Shu and Ji, with Bo being the name for the eldest, Zhong for the second eldest and so on. As Confucius had an older half brother, he was known as Kong Zhongni.
The ancestors of Confucius came from the upper reaches of the Yellow River and once lived in a state called Song. Then after the family’s fortunes declined, they resettled in the State of Lu, located on the lower reaches of the Yellow River. Confucius’ father, Shu Lianghe, was a very valorous man in the army but did not attain high rank. He became what we would call today a “civil servant.” When he was 60, he married a 20-year-old girl, Yan Zhizai, who a few years later gave birth to Confucius.
Mt. Niqiushan didn’t bring the family anything like the good life. In 549 BC, Confucius’ father Shu Lianghe died in his hometown. At that time, Confucius himself was only a 3-year-old child. The young mother Yan Zhizai and little Confucius were left to depend on each other for survival. They moved to a place called Jueli on the outskirts of the capital of the State of Lu, and settled down to a life of constant hardship.