Confucius was a humanist and an agnostic.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Confucius, who was born in the sixth century B.C., traditionally had a stature in China akin to that of Socrates in the West.
I have always thought that humanity was animal-like. The Confucian theory was man could be improved, but I'm not sure he can be. He can be trained; he can be disciplined.
Practically all the prominent leaders of thought in China today are openly agnostics and even atheists.
Mencius said that human nature is good. I disagree with that.
The first person to promulgate the Golden Rule, which was the bedrock of this empathic spirituality, was Confucius 500 years before Christ.
My father was an agnostic.
Life and human society are the chief concern of Confucianism and, through it, the chief concern of the Chinese people.
Confucius would give his seat to an old woman. Communist cadres, on the other hand, took the best seats and called it a cultural revolution.
Confucius - or Kongzi, which means Master Kong - was not born to power, but his idiosyncrasies and ideas made him the Zelig of the Chinese classics.
To Confucius, harmony was consensus, not conformity. It required loyal opposition.