Some call him a symbol of the Chinese nation, others - the Teacher of Teachers and the Great Sage, while others consider him the greatest mystic. Or maybe he was just a philosopher, tired of negligent students, of rejection of his ideas, because the world never followed him? This book is an original exposition of the ideas and life story of Confucius, accompanied by excerpts from the recordings of his sayings "Conversations and Judgments." A wise, meditative and instructive story from the famous Russian sinologist, head of the HSE School of Oriental Studies, director of the Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexei Maslov.