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RELATED TOPIC:
CONFUCIAN TEACHING

 
THE CONFUCIAN TRADITION
Who Was Confucius?

Irene Bloom :: Confucius is believed to have been born in 551, before the Common Era, and to have died in 479. In other words, he was born in the middle of the sixth century, before the Common Era, and lived well into the fifth century.

He was from a family of what would appear to have been impoverished nobility. In other words, people who had had noble status, but who had fallen on hard times and who are living in straightened circumstances. Indeed, the world in which Confucius lived was one of extreme social mobility.