Original subtitles

- [Narrator] Our history is no more

than a series of incredible events.

Each one of us can influence its course.

The tiniest of our decisions can influence

the future of mankind.

To know the past is to anticipate the future.

551 years before our era, the Luo region in Ancient China.

Confucius was born into a modest family.

57 years later, 80 magnificent women

are the offered to the Sovereign of Luo

for whom Confucius is the Minister of Justice.

In the 3rd Century of our era,

his disciples complete the compilation of his Analects.

In so doing, they immortalize his thoughts.

These three intimately connected events

are the founding elements of the Chinese psychology.

Their effects have been influencing the world

for 2,500 years.

(rhythmic instrumental music)

China is one of the oldest countries in the world.

It has survived through thousands of years,

seen vast empires rise and fall,

experience invasions of barbarians

sweeping in from the north,

and of Europeans coming from the sea.

It's origins are so ancient

that they are lost in the mists of time.

The ancient chronicles have been faded away

with the passing of the centuries.

And yet, China is still here,

more present than ever and appears set

on conquering the world.

Our story takes place more the 2,500 years ago

in a world where the Roman Empire didn't exist,

where Alexander the Great was not yet born

and where the very word China had never been spoken.

This is the age of legends, of great thinkers

and of bronze weapons.

In this region of the globe,

set between the Yellow and the Blue Rivers,

humans have lived since time immemorial.

Thanks to the abundance of water

and the vast fertile plains, civilization that was able

to take root and sustain itself.

Master on the rivers, the ever-increasing population,

as in Egypt or Mesopotamia, had to swiftly organize

and form hierarchies.

As time passed, kingdoms, empires and wars

followed one upon the other.

During the period that interests us,

the political situation is very particular.

China is divided into nearly 200 small, more or less,

independent states and is under a political system

very like that experienced in the West

during the Middle Ages.

Rivalry between the states is intense,

and local wars between lords are not uncommon.

In the middle, the central flower,

a grouping of small, less powerful states

is the heart of power and is constantly striving

to maintain the status quo.

Technically, the country is not in civil war,

but the situation may be described as delicate.

This very special period is known

as the Period of Springs and Autumns.

- [Woman Computer] Welcome to the memory of humanity.

(electronic music)

Here we can control time, analyze and compare

billions of events and alter them

to rewrite history endlessly.

For example, let us return to our distant past

and explore civilization's first steps.

China is a cradle of civilization, but not the only one.

(dramatic instrumental music)

When humanity began, there were only scattered tribes

living from hunting and gathering.

By discovering agriculture, people not only settled

but moved closer to major sources of water.

The more water there was, the more people there were.

Gathered around major rivers such the Nile,

the Euphrates, the Tigris or the Yellow River,

people were forced to organize themselves

to manage the use of the land and the water.

Thus, the first cities were born.

The first administrations and the first states organized.

Fields were used to produce enough to create reserves.

One part of the population was able

to specialize in warfare, another in the arts,

in science or administration.

It was no longer a mere question of survival,

but of building, developing and learning.

From the need to live together,

the first great civilizations were born,

but so also were the first great conflicts.

(dramatic instrumental music)

- [Narrator] China, which does not yet bear that name,

is divided into a host of states,

all very different from one another.

Some are fortunate enough to be ruled

by enlightened sovereigns.

Others toil under the yoke of cruel despots.

Most experience a subtle blend of the two.

It is one of the these small countries

on the banks of the Yellow River that our story begins.

On this day in September, 551 years before our era,

more than two millennia ago, Qui is born to the Kong family.

Many centuries later, his name Christianized

will be known throughout the West as Confucius.

At the age of 19, he chooses the path of administration

and becomes an attendant of his region's granaries.

He then works his way gradually up through the ranks

to become Minister of Public Works.

Confucius is a born administrator.

He is fair, upright, honest and rigorous.

For him, politics is not for personal advantage,

but to improve the lives of the people.

He is a statesman.

His achievements and successes naturally earn him

the envy and hostility of less-talented

or less-honest civil servants.

Throughout his life, he will encounter

scheming and conspiracy against him,

even going as far as attempts at assassination.

His inability to confront them

is proof of his integrity.

If he is no longer wanted, he prefers to leave

and take his advice elsewhere rather than

to descend into dishonorable political maneuvering.

Like every man of integrity, he will move

from disappointment to frustration.

His aspiration to create the ideal government

turns into a quest.

His aim is to find a sovereign capable

of listening to him.

- [Woman Computer] Men change with difficulty.

All his life, Confucius stood out against corruption,

personal ambition and political maneuvering.

He lived during a period when the governing elites

were more interested in their personal benefit

than in the institutions they managed.

How are things in our time?

Let us imagine a man with the wisdom of Confucius

traveling from country to country

visiting presidents or prime ministers

in order to advise them on how to run their countries.

He would make suggestions

to the President of the United States

on how to manage his foreign policy

or to the Chinese government on media freedom.

How would he be received?

Which president would listen

and really put his advice into practice?

It's a safe bet that such a visit

would remain purely symbolic

and would have no subsequent effects.

And yet, a statesman is supposed

to be in the service of others

and put the interest of all before his own.

Through the ages, down the millennia,

human beings have always had the same needs

to feed themselves, find a place to sleep,

protect their families.

These basic needs drive them

to react in a certain way, to prefer their own survival

over that of others.

If we took a 21st-Century man and placed him

back in prehistoric times, he would quite certainly

resort to tribal behavior and fight

for his own survival and reproduction.

The survival instinct is inborn,

even in the most civilized of men.

(light instrumental music)

- [Narrator] "Believe in man."

That is Confucius' credo.

The human being fascinates him.

He believes man is naturally good

and is convinced of his capacity to improve.

He insists especially on the value of education,

so he travels extensively, goes to the provinces

to advise princes to give them the recipe

for good government hoping that they will listen to him.

Gradually, through experience,

he evolves a sort of moral code,

a line of conduct.

Drawing inspiration from ancestral traditions,

Confucius makes it into a rule for life

that he never hesitates to teach.

Very quickly, he gathers about him disciples

who listen to him and contribute

to the spread of his ideas.

Progressively, the administrator promoted

to princely advisor becomes a thinker.

But, it is while he is Minister of Justice

in Luo Province that a major event

in his life is to unfold.

(gentle instrumental music)

As always, his administration brings stability,

morality and wealth.

The neighboring province is envious,

and then worried by this and devises a scheme

to eliminate Confucius.

Aware of the advisor's reputation for incorruptibility,

its governors offer 80 of their country's prettiest girls

to the sovereign of Luo who neglects his duties

for whole days at a time.

Disgusted and disappointed, Confucius chooses

to resign and takes to the road.

This is the departure point for 14 years of wandering,

during which Confucius will teach

his many disciples his code of conduct.

Dozens of years later, the code,

written and compiled into collections by his disciples,

is given the name of Confucianism.

(swishing)

(electronic music)

- [Woman Computer] We have just reached a turning point.

A turning point is a key event,

a crossroads in our history where the world

swings one way or the other.

Disappointed by the attitude of his lord,

Confucius decided to resign from an important post

and sit out upon the road.

He chooses to remain true to his ideas.

At age 57, this is a major decision taken by a mature man.

There's no doubt that this is a turning point

in the life of the advisor.

What would have happened if Confucius had remained

at the Luo court.

If he had put his values aside

and decided to accept the situation,

perhaps the great thinker would have returned home,

frustrated and in disgrace.

Worse still, when his enemies saw him

clinging to office, they might have chosen

a more radical method of removing him.

Without him there to defend them,

his ideas would certainly have sunk into oblivion.

The China of today would have been greatly changed.

Imagine a China where the sense of collectivity

as desired by Confucius was replaced

by individualism where the importance was placed

on the happiness of the person

and not on the good of the state.

It would have been impossible for the Chinese government

to use the philosopher's thoughts

to make its people accept current working conditions.

Western multinationals would have chosen

another more competitive country to set up their business.

Made in China would be far less prominent

than it is today.

The balance of the planet, as we know it,

would be totally different.

Let's take it a little further.

China itself may never have come into be.

Split into a host of tiny kingdoms,

each competing with the other,

this region of the globe might have resembled

Renaissance Europe.

Less united, she would certainly have been more open

to the outside world.

(inspirational instrumental music)

- [Narrator] Virtue is within the grasp of all.

Confucius was convinced of that.

His thought is a humanist philosophy.

Man is neither good nor evil by nature.

The choice of his life belongs to him.

Through learning, he can succeed

in putting his faults aside and cultivating his strengths.

But, for the philosopher,

education does not end with books.

You must also develop one's talents

through contact with experience and with life.

Merely stuffing oneself with knowledge is not enough.

An ideal prince is a virtuous prince.

To govern, he has no need for violence or the death penalty.

It is sufficient to set the example

and the people will follow.

(rhythmic instrumental music)

A governor who cannot rule himself cannot rule others.

But, education is not enough.

The human being also needs

to respect another fundamental value, love,

an unconditional respect for parents and family.

Within a political context,

this respect becomes submission, an absolute devotion

to the prince, the king or the emperor.

This concept of affiliation,

which Confucius places at the heart

of all human relations, is the keystone

of his entire thought and will influence China

for the next 2,000 years.

After the death of the master,

this teacher will be committed

to writing a collection known as the Analects

which has survived to our very day.

(dramatic instrumental music)

- [Woman Computer] Ideas are mightier than weapons.

What is Confucianism?

A religion?

A philosophy?

The very definitions of the two terms

are difficult to clarify.

Across the world in time, there is such a variety

that boundaries are blurred.

For Confucianism, the most appropriate word is thought,

teaching rather than beliefs.

Confucianism does not call on you to believe.

It gives advice and a path to follow, a method.

It coexists in the same territory as Taoism and Buddhism.

The fact that the three spiritual disciplines cohabit

proves their mutual tolerance,

and yet the spirituality inspired by the Master

is not exclusive to China.

At more or less the same period in the Ancient Greece,

Socrates is also teaching his pupils.

Like Confucius, he writes no books himself,

but his thoughts are spread by his disciples.

Both thinkers are in search of a more just society

and both exercise massive influence

over their respective civilization.

These ideas, thoughts and beliefs

have modeled the way we view the world,

understand life and think about death.

And yet, they are no more than words,

a few sentences spoken at the side of a road

or under a tree.

Without Socrates and Confucius,

and also Buddha, Lao Tzu,

all the philosophers of the Enlightenment,

the world would be radically different

in good as in evil.

(electronic music)

(dramatic instrumental music)

- [Narrator] For nearly 2,000 years,

the thoughts of Confucius have been

a fundamental pillar of Chinese society.

Taught to children, imposed on administrative executives,

nobody can pretend to an important post

if they have not yet studied the works of the Master,

a real success for the ideas of the thinker.

But, ironically, as so often occurs,

this recognition did not come in his lifetime.

Listened to, respected, set up as an example,

he is, however, never really followed.

Not one of the great princes he advises

puts his ideas into practice.

All take from his teaching whatever suits them,

but they ignore the rest.

So, the importance allotted to respect for the father

and the Lord is largely adopted

and expanded by successive kings and emperors.

Sovereigns show great interest in this philosophy

that puts respect for authority

and blind obedience to the fore.

Work on oneself, education and the practice

of virtue more constraining, are less followed.

Dying at the age of 72, he was buried

by his first 72 disciples under a simple earth mound

covered with grass.

Today, this simple grave is surrounded by those

of his sons and grandsons, spanning 76 generations

which makes it the largest private cemetery

in the world with close to 200,000

of the Master's descendants.

Confucianism is the backbone of Chinese thought,

at least until 1860.

From that date, the Chinese elite realize

how far their country is behind the Western world

and they lay the blame at the door

of dusty Confucianism.

And so begins a slow process of deconstruction

of the millennia-old philosophy.

In 1949, at the end of the civil war,

Mao's communists take power and launch

the great Proletarian Revolution,

objective, eradicate all remains of traditional society

and of Confucian thought.

For 10 years, everything will be done

to wipe the Grand Master from memory,

but it doesn't work.

The 1980s will see his rehabilitation

for the same reasons used by the Han emperors

centuries earlier, absolute respect for authority,

youthful in times of crisis.

Now in fashion, promoted by the leaders,

Confucius' ideas are again all the rage.

However, would Confucius himself

recognize his thoughts today?

But that is another story.

(electronic music)

- [Woman Computer] Ideas do not die easily.

An idea, that tiny spark, however minute

or fragile it may be, can rock a kingdom

or bring down an empire.

The Christian religion turned the Roman Empire upside down.

The Enlightenment revolutionized the West.

Confucianism molded China.

In good as in evil, ideas develop

on contact with human beings.

The more there are, the faster they go

like a trail of gunpowder.

Over the centuries, many people have tried

to change an idea to subvert it to their own use,

or even destroy it.

And there's no shortage of weapons,

many collection of opinion, destruction of monuments,

burning of art, banning of teaching,

execution of thinkers, massacre of populations, genocides.

Any method will serve to prevent the spread

of an undesirable idea.

Confucianism was fought for nearly 100 years.

The authorities tried to wipe it from memory

to make it disappear, but you don't get rid

of 2,500 years of history by burning a few books.

After being set up as an example,

Confucius was attacked, but nobody,

however powerful he might be,

can prevent another human being

from thinking what he wants.

Our consciences belong to us.

Our memory is our treasure

and that, nobody can take away from us.

(dramatic instrumental music)