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50 free Confucius trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Confucius trivia quiz covers the teacher from the state of Lu whose ideas shaped two and a half millennia of Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese life. The easy questions cover the country he lived in, the book of his sayings, the rule he taught about treating others and the philosophy that bears his name. From there the quiz moves through the biography: the poverty of his childhood, the bookkeeping and shepherding jobs, his rise to Minister of Crime, the plot to raze the walls of three noble strongholds, the dancing girls that ended his career and the years of wandering from court to court. The hard end covers the meaning of his given name, the courtesy name Zhongni, the disciples counted by Sima Qian, the tuition fee of a bundle of dried meat, the burned stables anecdote, ren and li and yi, the Han emperor who made his works exam material, Mencius and Xunzi, Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism, the Jesuits who Latinised his name, the Cultural Revolution campaign against him and the modern public holiday on his birthday. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on Confucius, the Analects and the Qufu temple before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our ancient China and philosophy quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which country did Confucius live and teach?
China
He lived during the Spring and Autumn period, roughly 551 to 479 BCE, in the state of Lu.
Q 02What was Confucius's birth name?
Kong Qiu
Qiu means hill, supposedly because of a dip in the top of his head; his courtesy name was Zhongni.
Q 03What is the collection of sayings attributed to Confucius, compiled by his followers, called?
The Analects
Large parts were composed in the Warring States period, and it reached its final form in the mid-Han dynasty.
Q 04The name Confucius is a Latinised form of a Chinese title meaning what?
Great Master Kong
Jesuit missionaries coined it in the late 16th century; Chinese speakers today mostly say Kongzi, Master Kong.
Q 05Confucius's negative version of the maxim 'do unto others' is often known by what name?
The Silver Rule
Do not do unto others what you do not want done to yourself; the key word he gave was reciprocity.
Q 06In which modern Chinese province is Qufu, Confucius's birthplace and burial place?
Shandong
His temple, cemetery and family mansion there are collectively a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Q 07How old was Confucius when his father, a garrison commandant, died?
3
His mother Yan Zhengzai raised him in poverty and herself died before the age of 40.
Q 08Which of these jobs is Confucius said to have held as a young man to pay for his mother's burial?
Caretaker of sheep and horses
He also worked as a bookkeeper, then mourned his mother for the traditional three years at age 23.
Q 09Confucius was born into which social class, between the aristocracy and the commoners?
Shi
He was educated at schools for commoners, where he learned the Six Arts.
Q 10In which state, ruled from Qufu, was Confucius born and did he later hold office?
Lu
Three hereditary families, the Ji, Meng and Shu, dominated its ducal government.
Q 11To which senior post did Confucius eventually rise in the government of Lu?
Minister of Crime
He was first appointed governor of a town in 501 BCE after Yang Hu's rebellion had been put down.
Q 12What did Confucius urge Lu's three powerful families to do to restore the duke's authority?
Dismantle their city walls
The Shu and Ji families complied; the Meng family's governor refused and the plan collapsed.
Q 13Per the Shiji, what did Qi send the duke of Lu to distract him from Confucius's reforms?
Dancing girls and horses
Q 21Which Confucian concept covers ritual, ceremony and the etiquette of daily behaviour?
Li
Confucius stressed that it developed through the actions of sage rulers rather than descending from heaven.
Q 22What term describes the Confucian ideal of the cultivated 'superior man' or gentleman?
Junzi
For Confucius, learning meant moral cultivation rather than the mere accumulation of knowledge.
Q 23What Chinese character opens the collected sayings of Confucius, reflecting what he valued most?
Study
He described himself as 'a transmitter who invented nothing'.
Confucius's ideal ruler leads by what, rather than by laws and punishments?
The duke neglected his duties for three days; Confucius left when he was later denied his share of sacrificial meat.
Q 14What breach of custom did Confucius seize on as the pretext for finally leaving his post in Lu?
He was not sent his portion of sacrificial meat
He wanted an excuse that would not publicly humiliate the duke he was serving.
Q 15How old was Confucius when he was invited back to Lu after his years of wandering?
68
Ji Kangzi, the chief minister, issued the invitation, and Confucius spent his last years teaching.
Q 16According to the Shiji, how many pupils did Confucius teach in his lifetime?
3,000
Of these, 72 or 77 were counted as accomplished disciples who mastered the Six Arts.
Q 17What symbolic payment did Confucius ask of prospective students in place of tuition?
A bundle of dried meat
He accepted noblemen, commoners and even former criminals, and his disciple Zigong said he turned nobody away.
Q 18Which of these was one of the Six Arts that Confucius's students had to master?
Charioteering
The others were archery, mathematics, calligraphy, music and rites.
Q 19In a famous anecdote, what did Confucius ask when told the stables had burned down?
"Was anyone hurt?"
He did not ask about the horses, which later readers took as a mark of his humanism.
Q 20Which Confucian virtue, usually translated as benevolence, did Arthur Waley render as 'Goodness'?
Ren
It comprises five basic virtues: seriousness, generosity, sincerity, diligence and kindness.
Virtue and rites
People led by punishments merely avoid punishment, he argued, while people led by virtue develop a sense of shame.
Q 25Confucius is traditionally credited with editing which group of ancient texts?
The Five Classics
A sixth, the Classic of Music, was said to have been lost during the Han dynasty.
Q 26Which later Confucian thinker argued that human nature is innately good?
Mencius
Xunzi took the opposite line, holding that morality must be instilled through training and tradition.
Q 27Which philosophy, adopted by Qin in 221 BCE, is seen as the antithesis of Confucian thought?
Legalism
Its adherents held that rulers should rely on punishments, statecraft and vigorous administration of law.
Q 28Under which Han ruler did the works of Confucius become the official imperial philosophy?
Wu
The decision in 140 BCE was continued almost unbroken until imperial China ended in 1912.
Q 29Which 12th-century scholar was the most renowned figure of Neo-Confucianism?
Zhu Xi
Largely ignored in life, his readings became orthodoxy soon after his death and held sway across East Asia until the 19th century.
Q 30Which Jesuit made the first known effort to translate Confucius into a European language?
Michele Ruggieri
A Jesuit team published a Paris translation of several Confucian works in 1687.