Why Kong Zi to be called Confucius:

As we all know Kong Zi is great philosopher and educator in ancient China, and he has made great contribution to human civilization. And his name is popular around the world.

How did he get English Name: the story dates back to 16th century in the Ming Dynasty, when the Italian Jesuit priest called Matteo Ricci (利玛窦)came to China and began his missionary work.

Ricci found that the Chinese People of the educated and official upper class at that time , all believed the instructions teaching a great Philosopher who is kong zi, his thought is leading and dominant, for all is ideology, kong zi has kong qiu, kong lao er, kong fuzi ,Ricci choose the most populous one Kong Fu Zi. So he translated Each character to the latin, Kong is Con Fu is Fu ZI ci In Latin, the noun can be masculine, feminine, or neuter, kong zi is a Man, named Confucius.so it keeps both the sound and meaning. (by the way, the Mengzi is Mencius, LAOZI AND SUNZI,, because in the 19th century Laozi Sunzi and Mozi were introduced to the west, at that time, Wade-Giles system is widely used to translate Chinese Names.

You can see the transliteration is common way used to translated proper names, most translated words were accepted as English words.

Known for Chinese is Kong Zi(Master Kong),Kong Fu Zi(Grand Master Kong),Confucius was born in 551 BC until 479 BC. He grew up the time when China get more and more divided, the time is Warring State, the people felt less confidence in the central government, a lots of philosopher arrived, people were struggling with this questions: what is the role of the state, what is mean to be a good person, how does humanity fit in with cast of order? In the Han dynasty Confucianism becomes centralist the religion, most life is teaching and preaching, and his legacy around his preaching in his home LU(鲁)in eastern China, some of quote is very famous like: A young man should serve his parents at home and be respectful to elders outside his home, he should be earnest and truthful, loving all, but become intimate with his innate good-heartedness。After doing this, if he has energy to spare, he can study literature and the arts. Good citizen or Child to be good son.

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.

（真正的知识是知道自己有多无知）

Leaning without thought is labor lost, thought without leaning is perilous(学而不思则罔，思思而不学则殆)

When you see someone of unworthy, examine you own character.

One is famous golden role is: Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.

When Confucius became a character in the intellectual debates of 18th century Europe, he became identified as China’s first philosopher, many Europeans viewed Confucius as a moral philosopher whose approach was in line with rationalism and humanism.

Today, many descriptions combine these several ways of positioning Confucius, but the modern interpretation of his view has been complicated by a tendency to look back on him as an emblem of the traditional culture of China.

孔子的名言运用到现实生活当中。