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CHAPTER 4 CONFUCIUS, THE FIRST TEACHER
第四章 孔子:第一位教师CONFUCIUS is the latinized name of the person who has been known in China as K'ung Tzu or Master K'ung.* His family name was K'ung and his personal name Ch'iu. He was born in 551 B.C. in the state of Lu, in the southern part of the present Shantung province in eastern China. His ancestors had been members of the ducal house of the state of Sung, which was descended from the royal house of Shang, the dynasty that had preceded the Chou. Because of political troubles, the family, before the birth of Confucius, had lost its
noble position and migrated to Lu.
孔子姓孔名丘,公元前551 年生于鲁国,位于中国东部的现在的山东省。他的祖先是宋国贵族成员,宋
国贵族是商朝王室的后代,商朝是
周朝的前一个朝代。在孔子出生以前,他的家由于政治纠纷已经失去
贵族地位,迁到鲁国。
The most detailed account of Confucius' life is the biography which comprises the forty-seventh chapter
of the Shih Chi or Historical Records (China's first dynastic history, completed ca. 86 B.C.). From this we learn that Confucius was poor in his youth, but entered
the government of Lu and by the time he was fifty had reached high official rank. As a result of political intrigue, however, he was soon forced to resign his post and go into exile. For the next thirteen years he traveled from one state to another, always hoping to find an opportunity to realize his ideal of political and social reform. Nowhere, however, did he succeed, and finally as an old man he returned to Lu, where he died three years later in 479 B.C.孔子一生事迹详见中国最早的史籍
(约完成于公元前八六年)《史记》
的第四十七章《孔子世家》。从这篇
世家我们知道孔子年轻时很穷,五
十岁时进入了鲁国政府,后来作了
高官。一场政治阴谋逼他下台,离
乡背井。此后十三年他周游列国,
总希望到机会、实现他的政治、
社会改革的理想。可是一处也没有
到,他年老了,最后回到鲁国,
过了三年就死了。死于公元前479年。
*The word "Tzu" or "Master" is a polite suffix added to names of most philosophers of the Chou Dynasty, such as Chuang Tzu, Hsün Tzu, etc., and meaning "Master Chuang","Master Hsün", etc.
Confucius and the Six Classics
In the last chapter I said that the rise of the philosophic schools began with the practice of private teaching. So far as modern scholarship can determine, Confucius was the first person in Chinese history thus to teach large numbers of students in a private capacity, by whom he was accompanied during his travels in different states. According to tradition, he had several thousand students, of whom several tens became famous thinkers and scholars. The former number is undoubtedly a gross exaggeration, but there is no question that he was a very influential teacher, and what is more important and unique, China's first private teacher. His