One of the most influential thinkers of all time. He lived durring the
Spring and Autum
Period, durring the decline of Zhou China. Confucius tried and failed to obtain political office in his lifetime, and his greatest legacy is in the Analacets which his diciples compiled after his death.
Confucius stresses a simple life of filial piety and devotion to ritual. Like most
great thinkers, his ideas would eventually be mangled beyond recognition by those seeking traditional justification for misogyny, xenophobia and a number of other nasty concepts espoused by
Neo-Confucianists.