Confucius was the first person in the history of China to teach a large number of students in a private capacity. When he traveled around the world, a large number of students followed him. According to tradition, he has thousands of students, dozens of whom have become famous thinkers and scholars. The previous figure is undoubtedly exaggerated, but there is no doubt that he is a very influential teacher, more important and unique.
He is the first private school teacher in China. His thoughts are perfectly preserved in The Analects of Confucius. Some of his disciples compiled his scattered remarks into a collection called The Analects of Confucius.
Confucius is "Confucianism" and the founder of "Confucianism". As mentioned in the previous chapter, Liu Xin said that Confucianism "wandered between the Six Classics and paid attention to benevolence and righteousness". The Six Classics are Book of Changes, History, Shu, Li, Yue (lost today) and Spring and Autumn Annals (The Chronicle of the State of Lu, which started in 722 BC and ended in 479 BC, the year when Confucius died). The nature of these classics can be known from their titles, with the exception of Yi. The Book of Changes was interpreted by later Confucianism as a school work, but it was originally a divination book.
What is the relationship between Confucius and the Six Classics? There are two schools of thought in traditional academic circles. One school thinks that the Six Classics are all the works of Confucius. Another school thinks that Confucius is the author of Chunqiu, the annotator of Yi, the reviser of Li and Yue, and the editor of Shi and Shu.
But in fact, Confucius is neither an author nor an annotator, nor even an editor. To be sure, he is a conservative who keeps the tradition in many ways. He really wants to revise the rites and music, that is, to correct all standards and practices that deviate from tradition. Such examples are common in The Analects of Confucius. Judging from the legends about Confucius in The Analects of Confucius, he never intended to write anything for future generations. At that time, I hadn't heard of any private books. Private works developed after the Confucius era, and there were only official works before him. He is the first private teacher in China, not the first private writer in China.