Title:Confucius and His Idea of History and Historiography

Author:Dong Tiesong, Associate Professor, Faculty of History and Culture, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China 130024

Abstract:At the Spring and Autumn Period, history as an academic area was merely in its preliminary stage. Meanwhile, Confucius contributed much to the idea of history and historiography. Confucius' thought of ethics contains his cognizance of human community. He employed the concepts, such as Heaven and Man, ancient and present, with principles and without principles, to analyze and generalize the changes of history. He recognized the existing ritual and musical systems of his time and viewed those as the core of humanity. He emphasized the roles of the rulers and their morality in history. He respected the deities but interpreted the “mandate of Heaven” by means of history rather than praying to the deities. Confucius identified himself as a cultural inheritor and master and compiled and preserved classical works. He provided a pattern of historical writing which takes history as a mirror to understand reality.

Keywords：Confucius; idea of history; historiography