Confucius

Confucius, the Latinized name of Kong Qiu or Master Kong, lived in the state of Lu in eastern China in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, by tradition from 551 to 479. Of modest birth, he held minor offices, failed to find a ruler who would adopt his ideas, and spent his later years teaching a circle of disciples the principles of good government and personal conduct: respect for ritual and the ancestors, filial piety, the cultivation of humaneness, and rule by moral example rather than force. The Analects, compiled by his followers, preserve his sayings. His teaching formed the basis of Chinese education for two millennia.