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Kong Qiu, or Confucius was born in 551 B.C.E in the small state of Lu in Ancient China. He was born in a position of low nobility.
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In 522 B.C.E., Confucius started up his own school.
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After he resigned from his higher level governmental positions in 497 B.C.E., he began his journey with his disciples to find opportunities to give advice to the leaders of the opposing states.
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Also in 497 B.C.E., Confucius met with leaders from the opposing states (Shen, Qi, Wei, Sung, Zheng, Chen, and Cai). Many of them disregarded his information because they thought it was impractical with the current state of the land and people. He suggested that the rulers return to the moral ways of ruling in the early Zhou period.
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In 484 B.C.E., he returned to Lu and taught a group of over 3,000 disciples about his philosophy. After his death in 479 B.C.E., his disciples spread his teachings throughout China. This was the beginning of the spread of Confucianism.
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In 213 B.C.E., the emperor of the Qin Dynasty ordered that many books of different subjects were burned. Of these books, Confucianism was one of them. Books with necessary skills and books about the history of the Qin Dynasty were the only books that were not burned.
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In 212 B.C.E., the same Qin Dynasty emperor also ordered that over 470 scholars who were Confucian were to gather at the Qin capitol, Hsien Chi, and be killed.
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In 202 B.C.E., Emperor Han established Confucianism as its state cult. Two schools were created. The first was the School of Old Text which mainly taught the human qualities of the text and the origin of it. The second was the School of New Text which put a supernatural connotation on the early records and figures.
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In 141-87 B.C.E., Emperor Han Wu-Ti expanded into Vietnam and Korea and Confucianism was spread.
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Confucianism was able to spread to Japan around the third century when the Paekche Kingdom from Korea sent Confucian texts to the Japanese court.
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In 604 C.E., Shotoku Taishi, Japan's Prince, issues the 17 Article Constitution. This constitution contained Confucian cosmological concepts such as Heaven, Earth, Man, and their responsibilities.
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In 682 C.E., a royal Confucian Academy was created by King Gwangjong of the Goryeo Kingdom in Korea.
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In 649-1127 C.E., in Japan, Neo-Confucianism revived the old teachings of Confucianism.
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Within 768-824 C.E., a man named Han Yu was considered the reviver of Confucianism.
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In 1020-1077 C.E., a Neo-Confucian scholar named Chang Tsai who attended the School of Principle wrote a famous and popular Confucian text. This text was called Hsi Ming or the Western Inscription.
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In 1243-1306 C.E., An Hyang, a Korean Neo-Confucian, introduced Neo-Confucianism to Korea.
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In 1392 C.E., Yangban, a Confucian scholar class, thrived in the Joseon Dynasty in Korea.
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In 1603 C.E., In Japan, Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu establishes a bureaucratic government based on Neo-Confucian principles.
