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Philosophical Haiku

Confucius (c.551-479 BCE)

by Terence Green

Old ways of doing
Right ways of being in life
Thus tranquillity.

As is the case with many of the great thinkers of the past who offer us clarity amidst the confusion, light where there is darkness, and consistency in the place of contradiction, the details of Confucius’s life are confused, opaque, and contradictory. Confucius – better known to his followers as Kong Fuzi, ‘Venerable Master Kong’ – may have had ancestors of the royal bloodline. His childhood may have been spent in the town of Yu, where he may have been born, and it may have been one of poverty.

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