[1] His philosophical teachings, called Confucianism, emphasized personal and governmental morality, harmonious social relationships, righteousness, kindness, sincerity, and a ruler's responsibilities to lead by virtue.

He advocated for filial piety, endorsing strong family loyalty, ancestor veneration, the respect of elders by their children and of husbands by their wives.

Under Emperor Wu of Han, Confucius's ideas received official sanction, with affiliated works becoming mandatory readings for career paths leading to officialdom.

The name "Confucius" is a Latinized form of the Mandarin Chinese Kǒng Fūzǐ (孔夫子, "Master Kong"), and was coined in the late 16th century by early Jesuit missionaries to China.

[10][11] The area was notionally controlled by the kings of Zhou but effectively independent under the local lords of Lu, who ruled from the nearby city of Qufu.

[23] The Xunzi says that once assuming the post, Confucius ordered the execution of Shaozheng Mao, another Lu state official and scholar whose lectures attracted the three thousand disciples several times except Yan Hui.

Shaozheng Mao was accused of 'five crimes', each worth execution, including 'concealed evilness, stubborn abnormality, eloquent duplicity, erudition in bizarre facts and generosity to evildoers'.

Confucius disapproved the use of a violent revolution by principle, even though the Ji family dominated the Lu state by force for generations and had exiled the previous duke.

However, Dubs is of the view that Gongshan was encouraged by Viscount Ji Huan to invade the Lu capital in an attempt to avoid dismantling the Bi fortified walls.

The Zuo Zhuan recalls that the governor advised against razing the walls to the ground as he said that it made Cheng vulnerable to Qi, and cause the destruction of the Meng family.

According to accounts in the Zuo Zhuan and the Records of the Grand Historian, Confucius departed his homeland in 497 BCE after his support for the failed attempt of dismantling the fortified city walls of the powerful Ji, Meng, and Shu families.

After Confucius's resignation, he travelled around the principality states of north-east and central China including Wey, Song, Zheng, Cao, Chu, Qi, Chen, and Cai (and a failed attempt to go to Jin).

To date, the Cemetery of Confucius (孔林) covers an area of 183 hectares with more than 100,000 graves of the Kong descendants, it is included in the World Heritage List for its cultural and architectural value.

Far from trying to build a systematic or formalist theory, he wanted his disciples to master and internalize older classics, so that they can capture the ancient wisdoms that promotes "harmony and order", to aid their self-cultivation to become a perfect man.

[citation needed] The Confucian theory of ethics as exemplified in lǐ (禮) is based on three important conceptual aspects of life: (a) ceremonies associated with sacrifice to ancestors and deities of various types, (b) social and political institutions, and (c) the etiquette of daily behavior.

His discussions of lǐ seem to redefine the term to refer to all actions committed by a person to build the ideal society, rather than those conforming with canonical standards of ceremony.

While pursuing one's own self-interest is not necessarily bad, one would be a better, more righteous person if one's life was based upon following a path designed to enhance the greater good.

Confucianism prioritizes creating a harmonious society over the ruler's interests, opposes material incentives and harsh punishments, and downplays the role of institutions in guiding behavior as in Legalism, emphasizing moral virtues instead.

Because his vision of personal and social perfections was framed as a revival of the ordered society of earlier times, Confucius is often considered a great proponent of conservatism, but a closer look at what he proposes often shows that he used (and perhaps twisted) past institutions and rites to push a new political agenda of his own: a revival of a unified royal state, whose rulers would succeed to power on the basis of their moral merits instead of lineage.

"[54] Confucians in later generations had conservative and mixed views on international musical influences encroaching on China, in particular those with varying styles that did not traditionally accompany rites, and some preached against sentimental tendencies from the Persians, the Greco-Bactrians, and the Mongols.

[61][better source needed] This realignment in Confucian thought was parallel to the development of Legalism, which held that humanity and righteousness were not sufficient in government, and that rulers should instead rely on statecrafts, punishments, and law.

Under Emperor Wu of Han, the works attributed to Confucius were made the official imperial philosophy and required reading for civil service examinations in 140 BCE which was continued nearly unbroken until the end of the 19th century.

There are clear Buddhist and Daoist influences in the Neo-Confucian advocacy of "quiet sitting" (meditation) as a technique of self-cultivation that leads to transformative experiences of insight.

Matteo Ricci started to report on the thoughts of Confucius, and a team of Jesuits—Prospero Intorcetta, Philippe Couplet, and two others—published a translation of several Confucian works and an overview of Chinese history in Paris in 1687.

[69] It is thought that such works had considerable importance on European thinkers of the period, particularly among the Deists and other philosophical groups of the Enlightenment who were interested by the integration of the system of morality of Confucius into Western civilization.

[83] Confucius considered his students' personal background irrelevant, and accepted noblemen, commoners, and even former criminals such as Yan Zhuoju and Gongye Chang.

[89] The influence of Confucius has been observed on multiple Western thinkers, including Niels Bohr,[90][91][92] Benjamin Franklin,[93][94][95] Allen Ginsberg,[96][97][98] Thomas Jefferson,[99][100][101] Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Robert Cummings Neville, Alexander Pope,[102][103] Ezra Pound, François Quesnay, Friedrich Schiller,[104][105][106] Voltaire,[107][108][109] and Christian Wolff.

In the 20th century, this tradition was interrupted for several decades in mainland China, where the official stance of the Communist Party and the State was that Confucius and Confucianism represented reactionary feudalist beliefs which held that the subservience of the people to the aristocracy is a part of the natural order.

[citation needed] In Taiwan, where the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) strongly promoted Confucian beliefs in ethics and behavior, the tradition of the memorial ceremony of Confucius (祭孔) is supported by the government and has continued without interruption.

[citation needed] In South Korea, a grand-scale memorial ceremony called Seokjeon Daeje is held twice a year on Confucius's birthday and the anniversary of his death, at Confucian academies across the country and Sungkyunkwan in Seoul.