Confucius has always pursued his ideals

Introduction

When Confucius was old, he sighed, "Those who understand me are probably only Heaven! Those who blame me are probably only Heaven!" At that time, he faced the difficult choice of chasing his dreams or giving in to reality. I will talk about his life after he turned fifty. Before that, he was a teacher for 20 years, teaching and educating people. After he turned fifty, he started to chase his dreams. Even later, when he left his hometown because he didn't do well in the government, his students still followed him. This became a famous story.

This article is divided into several parts: Background, Serving as Prime Minister, Visiting Different Countries, and Returning Home. You can read the part you like. Let's get started!

Background

At that time, China was the Zhou Dynasty, about 2500 years ago. At that time, they used a system where the land was divided. This meant China was split into many small countries. Each country's king had their own land, and their power came from the Zhou Emperor. The king had his own officials called Qing Daifu. The king would also give them land. Qing Daifu also had their own helpers to manage their family businesses. By Confucius's time, the Qing Daifu had taken control of the government, and the king had no real power. The State of Lu, where Confucius was born, was like this. It was controlled by three powerful families: the Jisun, Shusun, and Mengsun families. They made the king of Lu powerless. Ji Huanzi was the leader of these families.

Confucius's dream was to do something important in politics and make people's lives better. What does this mean? Simply put, a king should act like a king. He should love and care for the people. Officials should also act like officials. They should not take too much power. They should not make the king powerless. Using proper behavior to keep society stable. His ideas were to fix the problem of kings not acting like kings and officials not acting like officials. This is very different from today's China. The most important thing for his ideas to work was for the king to be a good person. This was, of course, very difficult.

Becoming Prime Minister

When he turned 50, he got a chance close to his dream. The ruler of Lu at that time, Duke Ding of Lu, decided to make changes. Because Confucius's ideas matched his the most, he made Confucius the Grand Minister of Justice of Lu within a year. This was like the prime minister today. Before this, Confucius had been a teacher for 20 years and had never been in politics. His promotion was so fast that Confucius had to think about a good future.

You might think Confucius's future would be easy, but that's not true. His life was going to be bumpy.

The three powerful families of Lu had built three cities on their own lands: Bi for the Jisun family, Cheng for the Mengsun family, and Hou for the Shusun family. They were almost as big as Lu's capital city. Because the walls were very high, these cities were almost impossible to attack. But these cities were not fully controlled by the families because their own helpers also wanted to be powerful. They also wanted to control the families. So, Confucius suggested taking down the walls to weaken them. With Duke Ding's support, and because Ji Huanzi, the head of the Jisun family, also wanted to weaken his own helpers, this was done. In the city of Hou, there had been a rebellion by helpers before, and after it was stopped, the walls were taken down. The city of Bi was controlled by Gongshan Furao, a helper of the Jisun family. He started a rebellion and led soldiers into Lu's capital city, Qufu. He was finally defeated and ran away.

The walls of two of the three cities were taken down. This was the best time of Confucius's political life. But because the third city refused to take down its walls, and the army could not capture it, and also because the nearby state of Qi wanted to use this chance to attack, Duke Ding gave up. Later, Qi worried that Confucius's changes would make Lu too strong, which would be bad for Qi. So, they gave 80 beautiful women to Ji Huanzi to make him go against Confucius's plans. As Ji Huanzi slowly moved away from Confucius, he lost hope of making his dreams come true in Lu. Even so, Confucius did not change his mind. He took his students to travel to different states, still looking for a ruler who would accept his ideas.

Traveling Through the States

Confucius first went to the State of Wei. Although the ruler of Wei, Duke Ling, treated him politely, he didn't accept Confucius's ideas, so his dream of good government couldn't happen. Also, some people said bad things about Confucius to Duke Ling, which made him suspicious and even sent people to secretly watch Confucius. Confucius only stayed in Wei for a few months before leaving. Not long after, when he was passing through Pu in the State of Jin, some nobles there were planning a rebellion. To stop Confucius from going in and spreading his ideas, the rebels surrounded him and his students. After a big fight, Confucius escaped and went back to Wei. Duke Ling of Wei often asked him if he could help make Wei's army stronger. But Confucius politely refused, saying he was better at things like ceremonies and proper behavior. Even though Duke Ling didn't give Confucius an important job, he still gave him a lot of money so he and his students could live well. Confucius accepted this happily, and even went to a private meeting with Lady Nanzi, the Duke's favorite wife, even though it wasn't proper. This was because Lady Nanzi was favored by Duke Ling and was also known for having affairs with other men. This made his student Zilu very unhappy, and he asked if Confucius was still following his moral rules, which made Confucius quickly explain himself. But Duke Ling spent his time on pleasures and the situation in the country was unstable, so there was no way for Confucius's dream of good government to come true. Finally, Confucius was disappointed and left Wei again.

Confucius then went to the State of Song. When he was teaching there, some old-fashioned people tried to stop him. Sima Huan Tui, a powerful official in Song, worried that Confucius's arrival would threaten his power, so he ordered people to cut down a big tree where Confucius often taught, to scare him. Confucius had to dress like a slave in Song and quickly escape the city. When he got to the State of Zheng, he didn't get to meet the ruler and almost got separated from his students on the way. He was in a terrible situation and some local people even made fun of him, calling him a "homeless dog." Having nowhere else to go, he went to the State of Cai and luckily met Duke Zhao of Cai. But Duke Zhao, like Duke Ling of Wei, liked practical things and didn't want to accept Confucius's ideas about proper behavior and good government. The rulers at that time wanted to make their armies stronger to survive the fighting between states. Because Cai was more stable than other states and it was easy to gather students there, Confucius stayed there for several years. He really wanted a ruler to value his talents and give him a chance to make his dreams real. At this time, King Zhao of Chu heard that Confucius was in Cai and asked him to be an official. Confucius accepted with great hope. But on the way to Chu, nobles from the States of Chen and Cai, afraid that Confucius would help Chu become too strong and hurt them, joined together and surrounded Confucius and his group. This lasted for seven days. Everyone was tired and worried, and some of his students even started to doubt Confucius's ideas. Even so, Confucius stayed strong and said his famous words: "A gentleman endures hardship; a small man in hardship does bad things."

Later, Confucius sent a student to escape and tell Chu what had happened. Officials from Chu then found out and came to help, ending the siege. After that, Confucius and his group went to Chu, and King Zhao of Chu showed respect to Confucius. Unlike other rulers, King Zhao was very interested in Confucius's theories and was even thinking about giving him land. It looked like there was hope, but things were still difficult. The ministers in Chu strongly opposed Confucius and even planned to kill him. Feeling he was in danger, Confucius had to leave Chu.

Returning Home

After wandering for more than ten years, Confucius was now sixty-eight years old. His initial grand ambitions had now failed. Exhausted in both mind and body, he returned to the State of Lu and from then on, no longer took part in politics. This didn't mean he gave up; instead, he changed his focus to teaching, using writing to carry on his dreams. Even when Confucius was seventy-one, and the State of Qi had a case of a minister killing the ruler, he still wanted to keep his ideas of proper behavior and music, asking Lu to send troops to punish Qi, but they refused. In his later years, Confucius often said, "The Way has been gone from the world for a long time." This deep feeling of failure and loneliness stayed with him through the rest of his life. What he was fighting against was not just the rulers and officials of different states holding onto power, but also a time that didn't agree with his beliefs. If you imagine being in Confucius's place, can you understand his helplessness? But this persistence, this spirit of not giving up, always gives us inspiration. Have you had similar experiences to Confucius? Feel free to share in the comments.