Can We Know the True Confucius by Denying His Sainthood?

From the life of Confucius and the Confucianism that he founded, we know that Confucius advocated benevolence and opened up a spiritual tradition for the Chinese. Confucius disciples and the Confucians respected Confucius as a saint from the core concept of benevolence. Throughout the history of more than two thousand years, the Confucians chose to realize their political ideals by serving in the government and gaining the trust of the monarch to carry out their political views. To maintain their power, the monarchs in past dynasties hailed Confucius as a saint from the perspective of “the righteousness between the monarch and his ministers” and “the propriety between the superiors and the inferiors”. The sainthood of Confucius has multiple meanings. If it is to be denied, we can only deny the sainthood represented by “the righteousness between the monarch and his ministers” and “the propriety between the superiors and inferiors”, which was worshiped by the monarchs in past dynasties. Therefore, the sainthood of Confucius cannot be denied for Confucius serves as a national spiritual belief.