Confucius was born in 551 BC, during the Zhou dynasty. His family could be traced to noble descendants but was poor because his father died, leaving only his mother to raise him. His state, Lu, was the cultural center of China. He grew up while Lu was in a period of peace. The affairs in his state greatly influenced him and his teachings. Before beginning to teach, Confucius had many governmental roles.

In 528 BC, his mother died. Following her death, he observed a three-year period of mourning, which is customary in China. During the period in which he was mourning, he began to study ancient history and literature. After this time, he began to teach and gained many followers. Confucius would teach only those who were eager to learn and who could learn from their own thoughts. He

"The Neo-Confucianism movement was characterized by a reaffirmation

believed that some men simply had better qualities to become governmental officials. The three things that he thought vital to all governments were an abundance of food, adequate armaments, and the confidence of the people. He believed the most important of these was having the full confidence of the people; otherwise there would be no government.

Yu-Lan, Fung. A Short History of Chinese Philosophy. New York: Free Press, 1948.

The Han was not the only dynasty in which the impact of Confucius was of great importance. One of the greatest revivals of Confucianism, known as Neo-Confucianism, came about in the Song Dynasty between the years of 960-1279 AD:

From his view of the quest for individual perfection and familial and societal relationships, as well as the way in which he taught, came his view of how government should function. He believed that only those who were educated should hold governmental roles and that everyone in a community should have an assigned role. He

. Later in the Song Dynasty and into the Ming (1368-1644 AD), Neo-Confucianists altered traditional Confucianism to make it less realistic and humanistic and more subjective.

Riley, Philip F. et al., eds. The Global Experience: Readings in World History to 1500. Englewood: Prentice Hall, 1987.

Confucius' central beliefs on government tie directly into the traditional Chinese belief in the Mandate of Heaven. When a new dynasty claimed power, it was said to have claimed the Mandate of Heaven - the power from god to rule. The Mandate of Heaven required the dynasty to establish a strong government, keep the peace, redistribute the land to the peasants, provide defense for the empire, and most importantly to obtain the support and confidence of the people. The government resulting from the Mandate of Heaven was the same kind of government envisioned by Confucius. A dynasty lost the Mandate of Heaven when it no longer provided the necessary food, defense, and lost the confidence of the people, eventually collapsing, as Confucius would have thought proper for such undeserving rulers.

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