Confucius
551 BC – 479 BC · 72 years · Qufu (State of Lu) · Asia
Teacher from the State of Lu whose ideas on virtue, ritual and filial piety shaped Chinese civilisation for two millennia.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 6th century BC
Portrait: Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Pythagoras — Greek philosopher and mathematician, 19 years older
- Leonidas I — king of Sparta, 11 years younger
- Sophocles — Athenian tragic playwright, 54 years younger
- Pericles — Athenian statesman, 56 years younger
- Themistocles — Athenian statesman and admiral, 27 years younger
Middle East
- Cyrus the Great — founder of the Achaemenid Empire, 49 years older
- Darius the Great — King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, 1 year younger
- Xerxes I — king of the Achaemenid Empire, 33 years younger
- Heraclitus — Greek philosopher, 16 years younger
Asia
- Gautama Buddha — founder of Buddhism, 12 years older
- Sun Tzu — Chinese military strategist, 7 years younger
- Mahavira — spiritual teacher of Jainism, 48 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 551 BC Birth of Confucius — aged 0, Asia
- 550 BC Cyrus the Great founds the Achaemenid Empire — aged 1, Middle East
- 539 BC Fall of Babylon to Cyrus — aged 12, Middle East
- c. 509 BC Founding of the Roman Republic — aged 42, Europe
- 508 BC Cleisthenes' reforms and the birth of democracy — aged 43, Europe
- 490 BC Battle of Marathon — aged 61, Europe
- c. 483 BC Death of the Buddha — aged 68, Asia
- 480 BC Battle of Thermopylae — aged 71, Europe
- 479 BC Death of Confucius — aged 72, Asia