Maestru primordial- Confucius

Confucius had a deep study of his country’s literature and history. He had a strong conviction that just and righteous rulers only can protect the State and make the people virtuous.
His ideal was to create a race of wise rulers like King Janaka. It was with this view he wandered from State to State in search of a good ruler. Confucius devoted himself to the improvement of Society. He ever thought of the well-being of the Society. He tried his level best to contribute much to the social welfare. The collection of sayings treats mainly of social welfare, human peace and harmony in Society. He strained his every nerve in giving moral training to people.
He laid very great emphasis on cultivation of ethical virtues. He tried to remove the discordant or disturbing elements in Society. He had a strong conviction that if the superiors and elders had a blameless character, others would follow them and there would be love and universal peace everywhere. As these social thoughts ever occupied his mind, he had no time to discuss on God and life after death. Moreover, he did not find it necessary also to dwell on these subjects.
The child was named K'ung, and his disciples named him K'ung Fu-tse or Master Kung, which Jesuit missionaries Latinized into Confucius. When Master K'ung was born, we are told strange music came from a mysterious source, and a voice from the sky announced the event. It was said also that two dragons patrolled the sky for the purpose of warding off evil influences, while five old men, representing the spirits of the five planets, came down from Heaven.

Early Life
Young K'ung dedicated himself to learning at age fifteen, becoming what we would call a "universal man." He restored and edited the works of the Chinese ancients - no mean feat. At age twenty-one he began to attract pupils, teaching them ethics, philosophy, and government. It was the daily life of the sage that gave meaning to his words. He sought to restore China to the condition it had enjoyed under its first kings who were virtuous and ruled wisely, whose people knew peace and harmony. He felt his duty was to hand on the knowledge and methods of the ancients, not to create or innovate.
Undoubtedly he drank from the well of the eternal wisdom-religion, the origin and goal of man's best and highest experiences on earth and beyond. In the light of this, Master K'ung's Family of Man is the brotherhood of humanity against a universal backdrop.
Four major works - the Analects, The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, and the Works of Mencius - furnish the foundation of the Ju philosophy, the name given to the teachings of Confucius. Some nineteen works in all are credited to him as author or editor. After two millennia the teachings have come down to us by many
routes, subject to the interpretations of the teacher's disciples and their followers.

His Life
Confucius was born and died in the state of Lu. He lost his father at the age of three and grew up in straightened circumstances, under his mother's care. As a boy he liked to set up sacrificial vessels and to imitate the gestures of ritual. At the age of nineteen he married, and a son and two daughters were born to him. He was a large man of great physical strength.
At nineteen he entered the service of a noble family as superintendent of parks and herds. At thirty-two he was engaged in teaching the ancient ritual to a minister's sons. At thirty-three he went to Lo-yang, the imperial capital, to study the customs and traditions of the Chou Empire, which by then had actually split into numerous warring states of various sizes, and whose capital remained solely a religious center. On this occasion he is said to have visited Lao-tzu.
At the age of fifty-one he became minister of justice and finally prime minister of Lu. Thanks to his ability, his prince became increasingly powerful. He overcame the nobles of the region and tore down the fortifications of their cities. The land prospered.
After four years of brilliant activity, Confucius gave up his position and left the country, travelling slowly, with interruptions, always in the hope of being called back.
He wandered about for twelve years, from his fifty-sixth to his sixty-eighth year. He went from state to state in the hope that somewhere he would be enabled to put his political doctrine into practice. In all the years he never lost confidence in his calling as political mentor and orderer of the Empire, though occasionally he cried out: "Let me go home, let me go home. "When finally, at the age of sixty-eight, he returned to his native state, he lamented in a poem that after all his wanderings in nine provinces there was still no goal in sight for him: men are without insight, quickly the years pass. He spent his last years quietly in Lu. He accepted no government position.
A profound change is said to have taken place within him.
Once a hermit had said of him: "Is that not the man who knows that striving is without hope and yet goes on?" All through the years this had been Confucius' greatness. But now he was old and strove no more.
One morning Confucius felt the approach of death. He walked about the courtyard, humming the words: "The great mountain must collapse, the mighty beam must break and the wise man wither like a plant."

Wisdom
Confucius is conscious of facing a great alter native: to retire into solitude or to live in the world and try to shape it. His decision is unequivocal: "A man cannot live with the birds and beasts. If I do not live with men, with whom shall I live?" And "he who is concerned only with the purity of his own life ruins the great human relations in evil times it may seem as though nothing else remains but to go into seclusion and attend to one's own personal salvation”.
Of two hermits Confucius says: "In their private lives they found purity; in their retirement they found what the circumstances demanded. I am different. For me there is nothing that is possible or impossible under all circumstances."
His tolerance toward the hermits only makes him more resolute in regard to his own conduct. "If the world were in order, there would be no need of me to change it."
In this devotion to man and his world, Confucius develops certain ideas that may be stressed as his basic wisdom. They relate to the nature of man, to the necessity of a social order, to the question of truth in language, to the nature of our thinking, to the absolute character , and finally to the One which holds all things together and to which all things relate. In every case, Confucius' main concern is man and human society.

The nature of Man
The nature of man is called jen. Jen is humanity and morality in one: to be human means to be in communication. The question of the nature of man is answered, first in what he is and should be; second in an account of the diversity of his existence. First: “A man must become a man. For man is not like the animals which are as they are, whose instincts govern their existence without conscious thought; he is a task to himself. Men actively shape their life together and, transcending all instinct, build it on their human obligation”.
“Humanity underlies every particular good. Only he who is in jen can truly love and hate. Jen is all embracing, not a virtue among others, but the soul of all virtues. It is described through its particular manifestations: piety, wisdom and learning, righteousness. The ethical man puts the difficulty first and the reward last."

Morality
Confucius never thought himself in possession of complete knowledge and never thought such knowledge possible. "To represent what you know as knowledge and what you do not know as ignorance: that is knowledge."
Confucius is aware of the evil in the world. It is rooted in the failure of man. He laments: "That good predispositions are not cultivated, that what men have learned is not effectual, that men know their duty and are not drawn to it, that men have faults and are unable to correct them: these are things that grieve me." Nowhere does he find reliance on the
love of humanity and on horror of the inhuman. "I have seen none who loved moral worth as he loves women's beauty." When he looks around for a man who might be a ruler, he finds none. He sees no saint; even to see a superior man would be gratifying, but again there is none; there is not even a preserving man.
Yet Confucius is far from regarding the world as evil. Only the times have degenerated, as had often happened before. Accordingly: "He knows that the truth will not shine through our day."

The Great Mystery
He becomes diffident at the approach of the ultimate and seldom speaks of happiness, fate, pure virtue. When asked about death, nature, and the world order, he gave answers that left the question open but because the matter itself imposed such answers.
Confucius refrains from all direct statement on metaphysical questions. Though such an attitude may be put down as agnosticism, it does not signify indifference to the unknowable, but rather a reverence which is unwilling to transform itself into rational knowledge.
For Confucius the impulse was toward the boundless and unknowable. Confucius shared in the traditional religious conceptions. He did not doubt the existence of spirits and omens. But in all his dealing with these matters he showed remarkable aloofness and freedom from superstition. "The master never spoke of magic powers and unnatural demons." "To serve spirits other than one's own ancestors is adulation." Asked about the cult of spirits, he replied: "If you cannot serve men, how shall you serve spirits?"

Heaven
Confucius speaks of heaven. "Only heaven is great, the seasons go their course and all things come into being. But does heaven speak? ".
Confucius seldom speaks of prayer. Suppliant prayer, not to mention magic prayer, is far from him, for he implies that his whole life is prayer. "If only the heart follows the path of truth, you need not pray, the gods will protect you."
"Death and life are the will of heaven from the beginning all men have had to die." Such maxims express Confucius' candid acceptance of death. "That some things germinate but do not flower; that some things flower that do not mature-alas, that happens." Death has no terrors.
"If you do not know life, how should you know death?"

The Golden Mean
" Because the innermost is revealed and everything is decided here at the source, the greatest attention must be devoted to measure and mean: Nothing is more obvious than what is secret, nothing more evident than what is most hidden; therefore the superior man is attentive to what he is for himself alone."
"To be magnanimous and mild in teaching and not to punish those who behave badly: that is the strength of the south. To sleep and die in the stable without having to: that is the strength of the north. But the superior man stands in the middle and bends to neither side."
The root of human salvation lies in the "knowledge that influences reality. that is, in the truth of idea that are translated into an inner transforming action. What is true within takes form without.”
"Things have roots and ramifications." The absoluteness of the origin enters into the relativity of the manifestations. If the root is good, if it is knowledge, reality, then the ideas become true, consciousness becomes right, the man is cultivated, and further, the house will be well regulated, the state in order, the world at peace. From the Son of Heaven to the common man, education is the root. He who cannot teach the members of the household cannot teach other men."
Truth and reality can never be embodied once and for all in any unchanging state or dogmatic statements. Confucius "had no opinions, no bias, no obstinacy, the superior man is not absolutely for or against anything in the world. He supports only what is right, he is not partisan but for all. He preserves his openness. When he does not understand something, he is reticent. He is firm in character, but not obstinate, congenial without stooping to vulgarity, self-confident but not self-righteous."

The necessity of order
Order is necessary because it is only in human association that the essence of man is real.
"Do to no one what you would not wish others to do to you. In acting on this rule be bound by a sense of equality.
Do not display to your inferiors what you hate in your superiors. Do not offer your neighbours on the left what you hate in your neighbours on the right The lover of mankind strengthens men, for he himself wishes to be strengthened; he helps men toward success, for he himself wishes to achieve success."
But when Lao Tzu taught that one should repay hostility with good deeds, Confucius answered: "With what then shall we reward good deeds? No, reward hostility with justice, and good deeds with good deeds."
A second principle of order is this: Because men are so different, good government is made possible only by degrees of power. The higher the power, the more exemplary, and knowing the human, must be he who possesses it. He must "march in advance of the people and encourage them. He must not be weary."
Those who are capable of self-mastery, who have learned to do what is good and to know what they are doing, will always be few. The people, on the other hand, "can be led to follow something; they may not be led to understand it." The fundamental relation of the exemplary man to the people is this: "The essence of the prince is the wind, the essence of the crowd is the grass. If the wind blows over it, the grass must incline." Order is possible only through authority.
Thus the man capable of governing is independent of public opinion. "Where all hate, he must examine; where all love, he must examine."
A third principle of order is: Once a development has begun, direct intervention can no longer be fruitful. If it comes too late. Of course force, laws, punishment can be brought to bear, but the result will be disastrous, for those threatened with violence will evade it and hypocrisy will become universal. Great effects can be only achieved indirectly. What is present in the germ can be guided in a different direction or encouraged. Here decisive action is possible. The human source must be made to flow; it is from them that everything else follows.
When asked what is the first thing to be done in order to promote a renewal in disastrous circumstances? Confucius gave a remarkable answer:
“Words must be set aright. What inheres in words should be brought out. The prince should be a prince, the father a father, the man a man.
But language is constantly misused, words are employed for meanings that do not befit them. A separation arises between being and language.
He who has the inner being also has the words; he who has words does not always have the inner being."
"If words are not right, judgments are not clear; works do not prosper; punishments do not strike the right man, and the people do not know where to set hand and foot. Therefore the superior man chooses words that can be employed without doubt, and forms judgments that can be converted into actions without fear of doubt. The superior man tolerates no imprecision in his speech."
Confucius says: "No one can be regarded as a superior man who does not know the calling of heaven; no one can be regarded as mature who does not know the laws of conduct , no one can know men who does not understand their words, morality is the love of mankind; wisdom is the knowledge of men. But in all this we have lost sight of the One”. In developing an idea related to Lao Tzu's nonaction, he may find his supreme authority in a saintly ruler.

Traditions
This way of looking at the old was itself something new. Past realities are transformed by present reflection. The translation of tradition into conscious principles gives rise to a new philosophy which identifies itself with the old.
The Jewish Prophets proclaimed God's revelation, Confucius the voice of antiquity.
He who surrenders is saved from the presumption of basing great demands on his own infinitesimal self. Independent thought, springing from the nothingness of mere reason, is futile: "I have gone without food and sleep in order to think; to no avail: it is better to learn."

Eternal Values
Confucius distinguishes between the good and the bad; he selects facts that are worth remembering as models to be emulated or examples to be avoided.
Moreover, he knows that in restoring what was good in the past one should not try to make something outwardly identical. "A man born in our days who returns to the ways of antiquity is a fool and brings misfortune upon himself." What he advocates is not imitation of the past, but repetition of the eternal true.
But this belief in a final, eternal truth derives movement from the way in which we assimilate the old. It does not bar our way but spurs us forward.
Here for the first time in history a great philosopher shows how the new, merging with the tradition flowing from the source of eternal truth, becomes the substance of our existence.
If the truth has been manifested in the past, we shall find it by investigating the past, but in so doing we must distinguish between what was true and what was false. He laid the groundwork of school education, first of all with his own private school in which he strove to shape young men into future statesmen.
With him the mode of learning and teaching becomes a fundamental problem. The aim of all learning must be practical. "If a man can recite all three hundred pieces in the Book of Odes by heart and, entrusted with the government, is unable to preform (his duties) or if, sent abroad as an ambassador, he is incapable of replying on his own, where is the good of all his learning?"
Manners and music are fundamental. Their essential is to shape men's nature, not to quench it.

Li - Dharma the Righteous Path
Li: Order is preserved by customs . "A nation can be guided only by custom, not by knowledge." The customs create the spirit of the whole and in turn draw their life from it. Only through the virtues of the community does the individual become a man. They are the forms which create the right frame of mind in all spheres of existence: earnestness, confidence, respect, so that the individual comes to experience the universal not as a constraint but as his own being.
His vision embraced the whole world of Chinese customs or dharma, the right way of walking, greeting, behaving in company, always in accordance with the particular situation; the rites of marriage, birth, death, and burial; the rules of administration; the customs governing work, war, the family, the priesthood, the court, the order of the days and seasons, the stages of life.
"A man is awakened by the Odes, strengthened and perfected by music. Mere form, like mere knowledge, has no value without the originality that fulfills it, without the humanity that is enacted in it. A man who does not love his fellow man-what will avail him?"
“He who overcomes his self and takes upon himself the restrictions of the li - the laws of custom he becomes a man. Although righteousness is essential, in practicing it the superior man is guided by the li. There must be a balance between the li and the content of a man's original nature. He in whom the content predominates is uncouth; he in whom the form predominates is a scribe. In the practice of the forms, the essential is freedom and lightness, but the freedom must be regulated by the rhythm of set rules."
Confucius drew no distinction between custom, morality, and justice and thus perceived their common root all the more clearly. Nor did he distinguish between ethical obligation and aesthetic considerations involving no responsibility, between the good and the beautiful. The beautiful is not beautiful unless it is good, while the good to be good must be beautiful.

Music
For Confucius, music, side by side with the li, was a primary factor in education. The spirit of the community is formed by the music it hears; in music the individual finds the themes that order his life.

Nature and formation
Confucius assents to all that is natural. To each thing he assigns its order, its measure, its place, and rejects nothing. He advocates self-mastery, not asceticism. Nature requires to be shaped, but violence can only harm it. Even hatred and anger have their place. The good man can love and hate in the right way. For example: "He hates those who themselves are base and slander those who are above them; he hates the bold who know no morality; he hates the reckless, bigoted fanatics."

Social Life
For Confucius human interaction is the life element. "The superior man does not neglect his neighbors. But in our association with men, we encounter both good and bad. Have no friend who is not your equal," says Confucius, he declares: "The superior man honours the worthy and tolerates all men." But in his dealings with others the superior man keeps his wits about him: "He may let others lie to him but not make a fool of him. The superior man encourages what is beautiful in men; What makes a place beautiful is the humanity that dwells there. He who is able to choose and does not settle among humane people is not wise."
Human relations are governed by the following fundamental attitudes. Toward the ages of life: "let me respect the tranquility of the ages; let me be loyal to my friends; let me love children tenderly." The right conduct toward parents: if respect is absent, wherein should we differ from the beasts?" A son must cover up his father's mistakes.
Toward friends, “Take no friends that are not at least as good as yourself, loyally admonish one another and tactfully set one another right." Friends can be relied on: "Even if the season be cold, we know that pines and cypress are evergreen."
Toward the authorities: "A good official serves his prince in the right way; if that is impossible, he withdraws. he will not circumvent the prince but oppose him openly"; "he will speak cautiously."
Towards subordinates “The superior man gives his servants no ground for complaint that he makes insufficient use of them, but, he does not expect perfection; he takes men's abilities into account and does not dismiss old and trusted servants without grave cause”.

Government
Government is the center of men's lives and all other considerations derive from it. Confucius sees a polarity between what must be made and what must grow. Good government is possible only in a sound social condition, moulded by the li, the right music, the right modes of human interaction. Such a condition can only grow. But though it cannot be made, it may be fostered, or impeded.
Laws are a means of government. But only to a limited degree do they bring results. And intrinsically, they are harmful.
Example is better than law. For where the laws govern, the people are shameless in evading punishment. But where example governs, the people have a sense of shame and improve. When an appeal is made to the laws, it means that something is not in order. "When it comes to hearing complaints, I am no better than anyone else. What interests me is to see that no complaint arises."
A good government must be concerned with three things: sufficient food, a sufficient army, and the confidence of the people. A government cannot do without confidence. "If the people have no confidence, all government is impossible." But in planning its policy, a government cannot begin with the demand for confidence. Confidence cannot be demanded but must be brought to grow spontaneously. As to policy, above all "make the people prosperous." The next most important thing is to "educate them."

Leadership
“Good government requires a good prince. He taps the natural sources of wealth. He chooses carefully what work the people should undertake; then they do not grumble.
He is superior without being haughty; whether dealing with many or few, with great or small, he is not disdainful. He commands respect without a show of force. Like the polestar, he stands fast and lets everything move around him in its order. Because he desires the good, the people become good. If the authorities love good conduct, the people will be easy to handle. If a ruler is right in his own person, he has no need to command, things are done without commanding."
"Do nothing overhastily; that will not succeed. Do not consider the small advantage, for no great work can prosper in this way, a statesman must govern with the consent and understanding of the people.”
Such intervention in historical reality is subject to two main principles: (1) A capable man must stand in the right place. "If a man possesses the throne but lacks the necessary strength of mind, he should not venture to make changes. Similarly, if he has strength of mind but not the highest authority, he should not venture to make changes. The political conditions must be such as to make effective action, the true statesman remains in hiding. He waits. He refuses to compound with evil, to enter into relations with base people.“
These principles contain an element of Socrates's belief that human conditions will not improve until philosophers become kings or kings philosophers. Confucius spent his whole life looking for a prince to whom he might lend his intelligence. But in vain.

The superior man
All goodness, truth, beauty are combined in the ideal of the superior man (Chun-tzu). Noble both in birth and endowment, he has the manners of a gentleman and the wisdom of a sage.
The superior man is no saint. The saint is born; he is what he is; the superior man becomes what he is through self-discipline. "To have the truth is the path of heaven, to seek the truth is the path of men. He who has the truth finds the right action without pains, achieves success without reflection. But he who seeks the truth chooses the good and holds it fast. “
He investigates, he questions critically, he ponders the truth and resolutely acts on it. "Perhaps others can do it the first time; I must do it ten times; perhaps others can do it the tenth time; I must do it a thousand times. But he who really has the perseverance to go this way, be he foolish, he will become clear headed, be he weak, he will become strong."
The character, cast of thought, gestures of the superior man are described. He is contrasted with the inferior man. The superior man is concerned with justice, the inferior man with profit.
The superior man is quiet and serene, the inferior man always full of anxiety. The superior man is congenial though never stooping to vulgarity; the inferior man is vulgar without being congenial.
The superior man is dignified without arrogance; the inferior man is arrogant without dignity. The superior man is steadfast in distress; the inferior man in distress loses all control of himself. The superior man goes searching for himself; the inferior man goes searching in others.
The superior man strives upward; the inferior man strives downward. The superior man is independent. He can endure long misfortune as well as long prosperity, and he lives free from fear. He suffers from his own inability, not from others' failure to understand him. He is slow in words and quick in action. He is careful not to let his words outshine his deeds: first act, then speak accordingly.
The superior man does not waste himself on what is distant, on what is absent. He stands in the here and now, in the real situation. "The superior man's path is like a long journey; you must begin from right here.The superior man's path begins with the concerns of the common man and woman, but it reaches into the distance, penetrating heaven and earth."

Doctrine
"How abundantly do spiritual beings display the powers that belong to them! We look for them, but do not see them; we listen to, but do not hear them; yet they enter into all things, and there is nothing without them "Confucius was a superior man that he wrote about - far ahead of the pack - who loved the ancients and humanity and who had a spiritual message so simple and direct, its words can still work magic.
To restore China to its Golden Age, Confucius gave the formula for restoring harmony to the family of man. "My doctrine is that of an all-pervading unity." As a Great Teacher he tried to illustrate illustrious virtue, to renovate the people, and to rest in the highest excellence. Things have their root and their completion. To know what is first and what is last will lead near to what is taught in the Great Learning.
From the emperor down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of every thing besides. This is to say every living thing is a seed of divinity at its heart - a divine truth. From purity and innocence it must enter into the worlds of matter and learn all the lessons that life has to offer. By the light of intelligence and self-consciousness it must rise again to the divine state.
Confucius observes that men commonly miss the mark in their strivings:
“I know now why the moral law is not practiced. The wise mistake moral law for something higher than what it really is; and the foolish do not know enough what moral law really is. I know now why the moral law is not understood.
The noble natures want to live too high, high above their moral ordinary self; and ignoble natures do not live high
enough.”

Learning
According to his teaching, man’s chief end is to know and make the most of himself as a member of Society. He preached to his disciples and the people the principles of good life and social harmony.
Confucius said: "A virtuous man has three awes:—(l) Awe for Heaven’s decree, (2) Awe for great men and (3) Awe for saints’ words. When worshipping God, one must feel as if He were visibly present."
Confucius said: "There was Tao, a way or road of righteousness, only when fathers were fathers, when sons were sons, when rulers were rulers and when ministers were ministers." Confucius laid great stress on the cultivation of character, purity of heart and conduct. He exhorted the people to develop a good character first, which is a priceless jewel and which is the best of all virtues.
The nature of man, according to Confucius, is fundamentally good inclined towards goodness. Perfection of goodness can be found in sages and saints. Every man lead a virtuous life, possess a noble character, and do his duty unselfishly with sincerity and truthfulness. He who is endowed with a good character and divine virtue is a princely type of man. The princely man sticks to virtue, and the inferior man clings to material comfort. The princely man is just, while the inferior man expects rewards and favours. The princely man is dignified, noble, magnanimous, and humble while the inferior man is mean, proud, crooked, and arrogant.

Sayings
“The way to become a superior man is to set one’s affections on what is right, to love learning, which is the source of knowledge and virtue, with which nothing else can be compared. When righteousness is pursued with sincerity and a mind free from self-deception, the heart becomes rectified.”
“Up to this stage the individual has been busy only with his own improvement; but the cultivation of the person influences primarily those around him, and ultimately the whole empire. Everyone, therefore, should carefully cultivate his person, having a due regard for others besides himself. Each man must guard his words and watch his conduct.
He must fly all that is base and disquieting, and must take benevolence as his dwelling-place, righteousness as his road, propriety as his garment, wisdom as his lamp, and faithfulness as his charm. Dignity, reverence, loyalty and faithfulness make up the qualities of a cultivated man. His dignity separates him from the crowd, being reverent he is beloved; being loyal, he is submitted to; and, being faithful, he is trusted.”
"The ancients", he said, "when they wished to exemplify illustrious virtue throughout the empire, first ordered well their states. Desiring to maintain well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families they first rectified their purposes. Wishing to rectify their purposes they first sought to think sincerely. Wishing to think sincerely, they first extended their knowledge as widely as possible. This they did by investigation of things."
"By investigation of things, their knowledge became extensive; their knowledge being extensive, their thoughts became sincere; their thoughts being sincere, their purposes were rectified; their purposes being rectified, they cultivated themselves; they being cultivated, their families were regulated; their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed; their states being rightly governed, the empire was thereby tranquil and prosperous".

Conclusion
In the "Great Learning" Confucius revealed the process, step by step, by which self-realisation is attained and by which it flows over into the common life to serve the state and bless mankind. Confucius sets it forth is as follows:
Investigation of phenomena, Learning, Sincerity, Rectitude of purpose, Self-development, Family-discipline, Local self-government, and Universal self-government.
There are three religions in China: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. Confucius and Lao-Tze founder of Taoism, were contemporaries. They are sages and philosophers. Lao-Tze was fifty-three years older than Confucius. They met each other. Socrates and Buddha also were the contemporaries of Confucius.
Lao-tse taught the Tao - the Way, a mysticism embodying the highest principles which could not but lead the soul upward. He and Confucius never claimed originality, seeking only to restore to man the knowledge that he is an immortal soul, rooted in spirit or goodness and destined for godhood.