Confucius

552 BCE – 480 BCE Chinese teacher, philosopher

Chinese teacher whose ideal of learning through moral cultivation shaped East Asian education for millennia.

Religion: Founder of Confucianism.
Affiliations: Taught a large body of disciples; ideas collected in the Analects.

Confucius worked as a private teacher during the Spring and Autumn period and is traditionally said to have taught thousands of students. He held that education should be open to people of any social rank and aimed at moral character rather than only technical skill. His teachings, gathered by disciples in the Analects, became the core of the Chinese civil examination curriculum for centuries.

Connections

influenced Mencius — He saw himself as heir to the Confucian tradition.
influenced Mencius — Mencius became the leading interpreter of Confucian thought.

In the timeline

551 BCE Confucius and the Confucian tradition central figure
500 BCE Confucius teaches in Lu central figure
500 BCE Confucius teaches and shapes Chinese education central figure
2004 First Confucius Institute opens central figure
2010 Confucius Institutes pass 300 worldwide central figure
2014 US universities begin closing Confucius Institutes central figure
2018 US law restricts funding to Confucius Institute hosts central figure
2019 Senate report criticizes Confucius Institutes central figure

Wikipedia