SOURCE: "Confucius, the First Teacher," in A Short History of Chinese Philosophy, The Macmillan Company, 1948, pp. 38-48.

In the excerpt below, Fung remarks on Confucius 's life, discusses the concept of righteousness in Confucian thought, and assesses Confucius's ever-changing stature in Chinese history.

Confucius is the latinized name of the person who has been known in China as K'ung Tzu or Master K'ung. [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.] 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...