About Confucius Sayings
Confucius placed great emphasis on morality. Most of his sayings recorded in The Analects concern moral questions. Of all moral qualities humanity or humaneness is the one he specially emphasized - it constituted for him the core of moral character.
Why did Confucius lay so much emphasis on moral character with humanity as its core? To understand this we have to recall how, in those days, man regraded his own position and destiny.
In the highly stratified society of the day, the common people believed that they were born to be ruled by the king and his vassals, to do hard work and endure a hard life, to serve their masters as slaves, serfs, or servants. They had to accept this fate, they believed, because it was decided by Heaven, which, though intangible, had control over everything, and which no one had the right to question, let alone disobey.
Besides obeying the will of Heaven, people had to respect their ancestors, who in their graves had the power to protect and punish their living descendants. Funerals and memorial rituals in honor of ancestors were very important and had to be conducted in earnest and with solemnity China Holidays, for they affected the fortunes or misfortunes of the living.
Then there were ghosts and spirits. These should not be offended, for they also affected the destiny of the living. Although they were invisible, they were believed to lurk in the dark and to be capable of doing harm to people.
Therefore the common people lived under threefold control: that of Heaven above the earth; that of ancestors, ghosts and spirits beneath it; and that of the rulers of the earth. The rulers, the king and all the tiers of vassals below him, believed that they were born to rule. This power was given them by Heaven, which brooked no query. The rites were the only rules they had to observe.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, as a result of social and political upheavals, all the traditional institutions and concepts, such as the rites and the will of Heaven, failed to check the ambitious and greedy rulers, and the misery of the common people was intensified by the incessant wars.
Confucius came to the fore, determined to save mankind from this tragic condition by means of reason. He did not emphasize the futility of resisting the will of Heaven, nor did he stress the danger of disobeying ancestors, ghosts and spirits. He did not advocate trying to eradicate war by waging war, or employing the law to curb man's wrong-doing. Instead, he endeavored to find a fundamental solution, a solution that would forever change men's thinking - to awaken all people to a realization of the nature of man, of the right way to be a man. It was for this purpose that he expounded the meaning of humanity and other virtues.