The government designated the birthday of the great Chinese sage Confucius on September 28th as Teacher’s Day in 1952. Each year, a ritual ceremony is held at Taipei’s Confucian Temple featuring ancient music and dance. Distinguished teachers are recognized for their dedication and hard work on the same day.
Confucius was born in 551 BCE in Qufu in Shandong province. His philosophy that places an emphasis on righteousness and benevolence has dominated Chinese thought for thousands of years. No other philosopher in Chinese history has had such a profound impact.
Dubbed “the Great Sage” by Han dynasty historian Ssu-ma Chien, Confucius was highly revered by imperial households as well, including those who were not Han Chinese – the Mongols of the Yuan dynasty and the Manchus of the Qing dynasty. When Emperor Kangxi of the Qing dynasty visited the Confucian temple in Shandong province in 1684, he paid his deepest respect by honoring him as the “Model Teacher for Ten Thousand Ages.”
Because of his strong belief in equal educational opportunities regardless of social and economic status, Confucius was known to have 3,000 disciples from different backgrounds. Among them, 72 of them mastered the six arts or the six basic skills deemed important in ancient times. They are: rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy and math. But Confucius was not only concerned about what his disciples learned in the classroom, he made sure to set a good example for them and he respected individual differences.
Confucius said “In a party of three, one must be my teacher. There are good qualities that I can learn from and bad ones that I should avoid.”