ISBN-13: 9780872432420

It is noteworthy that Confucius and Buddha were almost exact contemporaries, Buddha being some 15 years older and dying perhaps one year before Confucius. But there the similarity ends, for Buddha, meditating under the bodhi tree, essentially established a new religion of enlightenment. Confucius, however, held fast to the ancient religious practices. He aimed at making not simply the man of virtue but the man of learning and good manners. The perfect man in his view must combine the qualities of saint, scholar and gentleman. The name Confucius is the Latinized form of the Chinese characters, K'ung Foo-tsze, meaning "the master K'ung." Confucius was born in 551 BC of an ancient family in what is now the province of Shantung. After a series of appointments to public position by the ruling dynasty he inexplicably fell into disfavor. Until his death in 479 or 478 he was a wandering scholar. No sooner had he died, however, than his wisdom was celebrated by peasant and emperor alike. Admiration rose to veneration and veneration to worship. Sacrifices were offered to him, temples built in his honor and a cult established which has lasted more than 2000 years. Asian scholor James Legge says that the Lun Yu, Analects or Sayings of Confucius, were probably compiled about the beginning of the the third or the end of the fourth century before Christ by the disciples of the disciples of the sage, making free use of the memorials concerning him which they had received from their masters.