Confucius was born in the state of Lu at a time when local rulers failed to pay homage to the emperor of a declining Chou dynasty. Confucius deplored the disorder and looked back with nostalgia to earlier times.

He studied the teachings of the sages whose influence had made China a united nation in the past. Confucius decided that he must restore the faith and practices of the emperors and sages of old. Unable to obtain an official position to implement his ideas of reform, he spent his life educating a group of disciples.

Confucius sought to provide sound rules for every occasion in life. Profoundly concerned by the miseries of the world, he wanted to make men noble in order to bring about a noble world. His concepts of benevolence, ritual and propriety became state ideology during the Han times.