Confucius: Learning to Build a Humane Society
100 Lives That Shaped the World · Episode 21
- Historical Biographies
- 41 min
- Ages 12–99
- 10 chapters
About this audiobook
A source-aware biography of Confucius that follows a teacher through political disappointment, itinerant teaching, ritual ethics, and the many later institutions built in his name.
Why it's worth a listen
It separates the difficult historical person from later imperial, family, educational, and political versions of Confucian tradition.
A question to keep
How did a politically frustrated teacher become a durable model of learning, ritual, and humane government?
Chapters
- A Teacher Asked to Govern
- A World of Broken Ritual
- A Life Seen Through Late Sources
- Teaching as a Practice
- Ren, Li, and the Junzi
- The Road Through Rival States
- Government by Character
- Students, Loss, and the Analects
- From Ru Teachers to State Orthodoxy
- The Many Confuciuses