Confucianism (儒家 Pinyin: rújiā "The School of the Scholars"), sometimes translated as the School of Literati, is an East Asian ethical, religious and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of Confucius.

Debated during the Warring States Period and forbidden during the short-lived Qin Dynasty, Confucianism was chosen by Han Wudi and used as a political system and a kind of state religion. Despite loss of influence during the Tang Dynasty, Confucianist doctrine remained mainstream Chinese orthodoxy for two millennia, until the beginning of 20th century, when it was vigorously repressed by Chinese Communism. However, there are recent signs of a revival of Confucianism due to the loosening political control as well as a surge of Chinese nationalism.

Since Confucius' death, many people, mostly in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, have professed Confucianist beliefs and seen in this historical figure the "Greatest Master."

Zhu Xi and other Neo-Confucians gave Confucianism renewed vigor in the Song and later dynasties. Neo-Confucianism combined Taoist and Buddhist ideas with existing Confucian ideas to create a more complete metaphysic than had existed before. Confucianism as it exists today is primarily a creation of Zhu Xi and the other Neo-Confucians.

Development of early Confucianism
The relationship between Confucianism and Confucius himself is tenuous. Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC, birthday traditionally September 8) is often considered “a famous sage and social philosopher of China whose teachings deeply influenced East Asia for twenty centuries ”. In fact, though, Confucius' ideas were not accepted during his life, and he frequently bemoaned the fact that he remained unemployed by any of the feudal lords.

As with many other historical figures (Buddha, Jesus, etc.), we do not have direct access to Confucius' ideas. Instead, we have the recorded recollections of his disciples and their students. The issue is further complicated by the "Burning of the Books and Burying of the Scholars", the massive suppression of dissenting thought during the Qin Dynasty, more than two centuries after Confucius' death. What we now have of Confucius' writings and thoughts is therefore somewhat unreliable, at best.

However, we can sketch out Confucius' ideas from the fragments that remain. Confucius was a man of letters who worried about the troubled times he lived in. He went from place to place trying to spread his political ideas and influence the many kings contending for supremacy of China. The Zhou Dynasty's disintegration created a power vacuum that was filled with small states contending for power. Deeply persuaded he had a mission on Earth ("If right principles prevailed through the empire, there would be no use for me to change its state." Analects XVIII. 6.), Confucius tirelessly promoted the ancient virtues of ancient illustrious kings such as the Duke of Zhou. Confucius tried to get sufficient political power and found a new dynasty, as when he planned to accept an invitation from a rebel and "make a Zhou dynasty in the East" (Analects XV. 5). In this respect, his thinking may be said to be political. However, as the common saying that Confucius was a "king without a crown" shows, he never did gain the opportunity to apply his ideas and was expelled much of the time and eventually went back to his homeland to spend the last part of his life teaching.

The Analects of Confucius, the closest thing we have to a primary source for his thoughts, relates discussions with his disciples in short sayings. As this book is a compilation of snatches of conversation, questions and answers, or slices of Confucius' life, there is no description of a coherent system of thought. Instead of using deductive reasoning and the law of non-contradiction, like many Western philosophers, he used tautology and analogy to explain his ideas. For these reasons, Western readers might think that his philosophy was muddled or unclear, or that Confucius had no clear purpose. However, he also said "I seek a unity all pervading" (Analects XV. 3., trad. Legge) and "There is one single thread binding my way together." (IV.15. trad. Lau).

The first drafts of a real system may have been created by disciples or disciples of disciples, but firstly to Zi Si, Confucius' grandson. During the philosophically fertile period of the Hundred Schools of Thought, great early figures of Confucianism like Mencius and Xun Zi (not to be confused with Sun Zi) developed Confucianism into an ethical and political doctrine. Both had to fight contemporary ideas and gain the ruler's confidence through argumentation and reasoning. Mencius in particular gave Confucianism a much fuller explanation of human nature, what is needed for good government, etc.

Some of Xun Zi's disciples, like Han Feizi, became Legalists (a kind of law-based totalitarism very far from virtue-based Confucianism) and helped Qin Shi Huang to unify China under a very strong state control of every human activity. So, Confucius' dream of unification and peace in China can be argued to have come from a school of thought, Legalism, that was almost diametrically opposed to his consistent reliance on rites and virtue.

The spread of Confucianism
Confucianism survived its suppression during the Qin Dynasty because a trove of Confucian classics was uncovered hidden in the walls of a scholar's house. After the Qin, the new Han Dynasty approved of the doctrine and sponsored Confucian scholars in the court. Eventually, Emperor Wu of Han found great utility in Confucianism's political ideas and made Confucianism the official state philosophy.

Toward this end, study of the Confucian classics became the basis of the government examination system. Confucianism became the very core of the educational curriculum. With Confucianism firmly ensconced in the minds of the Chinese people and their politicians, the philosophy gained political primacy, and no serious attempt to thoroughly replace it came until the advent of Communism in the 20th century.

Under its eventual reformulation as Neo-Confucianism, Confucianism became accepted as state philosophies in Korea and Japan.

Rites
Lead the people with administrative injunctions and put them in
their place with penal law, and they will avoid punishments but will
be without a sense of shame. Lead them with excellence and put them in
their place through roles and ritual practices, and in addition to
developing a sense of shame, will order themselves harmoniously.
Analects II. 3. tr. J. Legge
This sentence concisely explains an essential difference between legalism and ritualism, and could be seen to point out a key difference between Western and Eastern societies. Confucius explains that with the Law, that punishes after the action and from the outside, people behave well without really understanding (comprising, making it one's) the reason why they should. With the Rite, that works before and from the inside by giving shapes to behaviors and giving self-control on desires, people behave properly because they fear shame and seek honor, as they want not to lose face. A related saying is: "Even if I could try a civil suit as well as anyone, it would be better to bring it about that there were no civil suits." (Analects XII. 13. Tr. A. Waley).

Rite (禮, Lǐ) stands here for a complex set of ideas hard to render in Western languages. Its Chinese character previously had the religious meaning of "sacrifice": 禮 is 示 'altar' on the left of 曲 on 豆 representing a vase full of flowers, offered as a sacrifice to the gods. Its Confucian meaning goes from politeness and propriety to the understanding of everybody's correct place in society. In its external form, Rites are used to distinguish between people, their usage making everyone know at all times who is the younger and who is the elder, who is the guest and who is the host and so forth. In its internal effect, it makes everyone know their duty among others and what one can expect from them.

Internalization is the main process in Rites: behavior formalization becomes progressively internalized into the channelling of desires, and personal cultivation is the inner side of social correctness. This idea goes against the common saying that "The cowl does not make the monk," but in Confucius' mind "sincerity" is used to allow the behaviour to dye the self. Obeying the rites with sincerity makes them the most powerful way to cultivate oneself. Thus, "Respectfulness, without the Rites, becomes laborious bustle; carefulness, without the Rites, becomes timidity; boldness, without the Rites, becomes insubordination; straightforwardness, without the Rites, becomes rudeness." (VIII. 2. Trad. Legge mod.) The Rites can be seen as a means to stay between two opposing qualities, that, unbalanced, or "unharmonized," can become a fault.

Linked to protocol and ceremonies, assigning to everyone a defined place in the society and the behaviors related to this place, Rites divide people into categories, building a hierarchical structure of relationships within the group. But this is almost always balanced in Confucius sayings with reference to Music, which has the role of unifying the hearts. (Music seem to have played a great role in Confucius' life.) Even though the Analects heavily promote (ancient) rites, Confucius himself broke them often, for example when he cried too much at his preferred disciple's death, or when he met a fiendish princess (VI. 28.). Those latter rigid ritualists who forgot that the Rites are "more than presents of jade and silk" (XVII. 12.) were going far from their Master.