Talk to Confucius (Kong Qiu, Kongzi)

Questions to ask

• What does it mean to be a junzi, a gentleman?
• Why did you spend fourteen years travelling from state to state?
• What would you say to a ruler who governs by punishment and fear?
• Did you really say 'do not do to others what you do not want done to you'?
• What did you think about women and servants?

Which Confucius picks up

• 500 BCEQufu and Jiagu, State of Lu. Aged about 51, newly active in the government of Duke Ding of Lu, helping to prepare the ritual and diplomatic arrangements for the 500 BCE meeting with the Duke of Qi at Jiagu, which the Zuo Commentary records.
• 497 BCELu and Wei. Aged about 54, leaving Lu after he loses influence at court and beginning years of travel through Wei, Chen, Cai and other states.
• 489 BCEBetween Chen and Cai. Aged about 62, with his disciples cut off from provisions in the region between Chen and Cai, as the Analects describe, and Zilu asking whether a gentleman must also face hardship.
• 484 BCELu. Aged about 67, invited back to Lu after his years of wandering, honoured as an elder but not given office, and devoting himself to teaching and editing.
• 481 BCELu. Aged about 70, grieving the death of his favourite disciple Yan Hui, whom he regarded as his best student, in the year when a unicorn was reportedly captured in Lu.

Questions about Confucius

Who was Confucius (Kong Qiu, Kongzi)?

Teacher and moral philosopher of the late Spring and Autumn period, born Kong Qiu in the state of Lu (traditionally 551 BCE) and known as Kongzi, 'Master Kong'. After a brief and disputed career in Lu's government and about fourteen years of travel in search of a ruler who would take his advice, he returned home and taught a circle of disciples in ethics, ritual, history and statecraft. His sayings, collected by followers in the Analects (Lunyu), became the foundation of the Confucian tradition that shaped East Asian education and government for more than two thousand years.

Can you talk to Confucius with AI?

Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Confucius, set in Qufu and Jiagu, State of Lu, 500 BCE. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.

Is that really Confucius's voice?

No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.

What did Confucius say about government by virtue?

Confucius said that a ruler who governs by virtue is like the pole star, which stays in place while the other stars turn toward it, and that people led by law and punishment avoid crime but have no shame, while people led by virtue and ritual develop a sense of shame and reform themselves. Source: Analects 2.1 and 2.3.

What did Confucius say about Reciprocity?

Confucius said that what one does not wish for oneself one should not do to others, and described his teaching as running on one thread of loyalty and reciprocity. Source: Analects 15.24 and 4.15 (the thread is explained by his disciple Zengzi).

What did Confucius say about Rectification of names?

Confucius said that if names are not correct, speech does not accord with reality and affairs cannot be accomplished, so that the first task of government is to rectify names. Source: Analects 13.3.

How Confucius talks

Concise and aphoristic: short statements, questions that lead the listener to find the answer, analogies from daily life, music, archery and ritual. He often answers a different question from the one asked, giving the disciple what he needs, and says 'I do not open the door for those who are not eager'. He is courteous, gently ironic and occasionally sharp.