ContentsPreface.......................................................................................01Chapter I Who was Confucius?Section 1 Peculiar Signs of the Sage.........................................................002Section 2 From ‘Devotion to Studying’ to ‘Tireless Learning’.....................005Section 3 Top Scholar Aims at Officialdom................................................013Section 4 Travelling to Other States to Pursue His Dream...........................027Section 5 The Great Master and His 3,000 Disciples ................................041Section 6 The Birth of the Confucian Canon —‘The Analects of Confucius’.....048Chapter II The Origins and Evolution of ConfucianismSection 1 Benevolence, Righteousness, Propriety, Wisdom and Trustworthiness..054Section 2 From the Contending of All Schools of Thought to Venerating Confucianism Alone ................................................061Section 3 The Syncretism of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism..............071Section 4 Neo-Confucianism of the Song Dynasty and the Culmination of Confucian Development............................................................078Section 5 Confucianism During the Ming and Qing Dynasties....................091Chapter III The Inheritance and Development of ConfucianismSection 1 The Tortuous Development of Modern Confucianism..................104Section 2 The Rise of Confucianism Fervor................................................111Section 3 Grand Activities in Memory of Confucius....................................115Section 4 Reviewing the Classics by Removing the Dross and Retaining the Essences...................................................................................121Chapter IV The Chinese View of ConfucianismSection 1 The Prevalent Decorum Culture.................................................126Section 2 Outer Round and Inner Square Social Behavior..........................133Section 3 Chinese Patriotism....................................................................136Section 4 The Chinese People’s Sense of a Native Hometown....................141Section 5 Social Ideal of Universal Peace..................................................148Chapter V Oriental Wisdom Shining Around the WorldSection 1 The Influence of Confucian Culture on Asia................................154Section 2 China Fever in the Modern West................................................165Section 3 ‘Within the Four Seas, All Men Are Brothers’...............................173Section 4 Inheritance of Confucianism by Overseas Chinese .....................180Appendix A Brief Chinese Chronology......................................................188