Confucius: The Sage Reformer and Visionary of China

Confucius (c. 551-479 bc), also known as Kong Fuzi, is regarded as one of the foundational figures in Chinese civilization. His ideas not only gained immense popularity in China but also had a profound influence on the world, and played a key role in shaping the intellectual climate of the eighteenth-century French Revolution and the Enlightenment. While Buddhism, brought to China by Indian scholars, became widely influential in the Chinese world and spread globally, Confucius’s works remained largely unknown in the Indian subcontinent. Despite India being a melting pot of diverse cultures, there were hardly any Sanskrit, Pali, or Prakrit texts, or medieval Indian works, which refer­enced Confucius. It wasn’t until the colonial and post-colonial periods that he was notably mentioned in Indian intellectual circles.