
The common gentlemen of the late Zhou dynasty could boast of their employability in the army or in any administrative position-because they were educated in the six arts of ritual ( see below Teachings of Confucius), music, archery, charioteering, writing, and arithmetic-but in the social hierarchy of the time they were just a notch higher than the common folk. The Kongs of Lu were common gentlemen ( shi) with none of the hereditary entitlements their ancestors had once enjoyed in Song. …way of life propagated by Confucius in the 6th–5th century bce and followed by the Chinese people for more. By the mid-7th century BCE, however, the family had lost political standing and most of its wealth, and some of the Kongs-Confucius’s great-grandfather being one-had relocated to the state of Lu. According to some reports, Confucius’s early ancestors were the Kongs from the state of Song-an aristocratic family that produced several eminent counselors for the Song rulers. Like other regional states at the time, Lu was bound to the imperial court of the Zhou dynasty (1045–221 BCE) through history, culture, family ties (which stretched back to the dynasty’s founding, when relatives of the Zhou rulers were enfeoffed as heads of the regional states), and moral obligations. His home was in Lu, a regional state of eastern China in what is now central and southwestern Shandong province. Life of ConfuciusĬonfucius was born near the end of an era known in Chinese history as the Spring and Autumn Period (770–481 BCE).


100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.
#Advance wars by web jade sun how to#


Britannica Explains In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions.Britannica Classics Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives.
