For years, those words have combined the wisdom of fortune cookies with the humor of old Charlie Chan movies, effectively reducing Confucius and his philosophy to a series of witless jokes. Too bad. Because in Chinese history, the legendary philosopher Confucius is one of the most significant people who ever lived, responsible for both the ethical practices and political philosophy that governed Chinese history for 2,000 years.

As with the life of Jesus or Buddha, some of Confucius's biography must be taken on faith. According to tradition, Confucius was born in 551 BCE, in Lu, in the northeastern Sandong Province. His name was Kong Fu Zi ("great master Kong") and the name "Confucius" is the Latinized form first used by Jesuits who came to China in the seventeenth century. While Confucius is said to have practiced archery and music-activities of the Chinese nobility-he seems to have been born into relatively humble circumstances. According to one tradition, his parents died when he was a child, but in his works, there is little reference to father, mother, or a wife, though Confucius is believed to have had a son who died, as well as a daughter. When Confucius himself died, he was largely unknown in China.

Although there is no evidence that Confucius ever wrote anything himself, he was long thought to have edited the collection of ancient wisdom books called the Five Classics, including the I Ching, the ancient divination guide to which he supposedly added his own commentaries. (This is now in dispute.) His conversations and sayings were also included in a book of his thoughts and anecdotes called the Analects which was compiled by his disciples. These disciples included the early Confucian philosopher Mencius (371289 BCE), who believed that people were born good and simply needed to preserve "the natural compassion of the heart" that makes them human; and Xun Zi (mid-200s BCE), who believed people could live together peacefully only if their minds were shaped by education and clear rules of conduct.

But Confucianism itself is the centerpiece of the philosopher's contribution. Begun as a code of conduct that only later evolved into what might be called a "religion," Confucianism has no organization or clergy. Nor does it teach a belief in a deity or in the existence of life after death. Instead, Confucianism stresses moral and political ideas, putting an emphasis on respect for ancestors and government authority while insisting that women belong in the home. These ideas were not new or radical by any means, but Confucius placed them in a new framework by suggesting that the individual has a proper place in the political, societal, and family hierarchies, and that within these hierarchies one must venerate those above and care for those below.

Confucius further argued that tradition and order have to be respected to maintain the equilibrium of the universe. That meant practicing piety, ethical norms, and human benevolence-or jen, a concept that encompasses love, goodness, integrity, and loyalty-which apply to every aspect of life. Adhering to jen depends on following the "middle way"-or moderation. Central to this idea was the Confucian version of the Golden Rule: "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others."

By about 200 BCE, the first large, unified Chinese empire had begun under the Han Dynasty. The Han rulers approved of Confucianism's emphasis on public service and respect for authority. In 124 BCE, the government established the Imperial University to educate future government officials in the Confucian ideals found in the Five Classics. Candidates applying for government jobs had to pass rigorous examinations based on the Five Classics, and a second set of texts called the Four Books.* Mastery of these classics was also proof of moral fitness and the chief sign of a Chinese gentleman, even one not born into nobility. Under the Han Dynasty, the idea that the emperor's authority came from heaven was also given greater clout, and Confucianism increasingly became the state "religion" of China from the 100s BCE until the mid-twentieth century. When the Chinese Communists gained control of China in 1949, they opposed Confucianism, because it encouraged people to look to the past rather than to the future. It was among the "four olds"-old ideas, habits, customs, and culture-rejected by the Party in the 1950s. Official opposition to Confucianism ended in 1977. Since then, the Communist government has relaxed some of its policies against religion, and so Confucianism has enjoyed a revival on the mainland.

MYTHIC VOICES.

Truthful words are not beautiful.

Beautiful words are not truthful.

Good men do not argue.

Those who argue are not good.

Those who know are not learned.

The learned do not know.

The sage never tries to store things up.

The more he does for others, the more he has, The more he gives to others, the greater his abundance.

The Tao of heaven is pointed but does no harm.

The Tao of the sage is work without effort.

-Lao-tzu, Tao Te Ching 81 (translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English) What religion shunned the Confucian approach?

It has been turned into a way to raise cats or children, invest, paint, understand physics, heal yourself, and even reinterpret Winnie-the-Pooh. Stick the word "tao" in a book title, and it conveys an image of some secret inner knowing. Not bad for a philosophy that was conceived in mystery and myth. Taoism is a philosophy with obscure, legendary beginnings in China during the 300s BCE-although many practitioners claim its oral roots go back thousands of years-and that it acquired the qualities of a religion by the 100s BCE.

While Confucianism stressed that a good life only comes from living in a well-disciplined society that emphasizes ceremony, duty, morality, and public service, the Taoist ideal rejected conventional social obligations and urged the individual to lead a simple, spontaneous, and meditative life close to nature, and to see change as the way of the universe. The word "tao" (also spelled "dao" and pronounced dow) originally meant "path" or "way." Tao was all about getting in rhythm with the great cycles in nature, and learning to live in harmony with the changing seasons.

The beliefs of Taoism as a philosophy are showcased in the Tao Te Ching ("the classic of the way and the virtue"). Tao Te Ching is a collection from several sources, but its authors and editors are unknown. Unreliable accounts say that a man named Laozi lived during the 500s BCE and wrote these works. A legend tells how Laozi, supposedly a keeper of imperial archives some six centuries before the Christian era, could foresee the imminent decay of society. He was preparing to leave China for the fabled land of the West. A guard at the frontier asked this master for an account of his ideas, and Laozi responded with Tao Te Ching. However, the Tao Te Ching, made up of eighty-one brief sections, was probably compiled and revised during the 200s and 100s BCE-well after Laozi had died. (A legendary meeting between Laozi and Confucius is also most likely just that-a legend.) Chuang-tzu, his disciple, lived around 329286 BCE and expanded on the tao with a second book, called Chuang-tzu.

Composed largely in verse, the Tao Te Ching describes the unity of nature-the tao, or "way"-that makes each thing in the universe what it is, and determines its behavior. Enigmatic and elusive, this unity can be understood only by mystical intuition. Because, in Taoism, "yielding eventually overcomes force," the book teaches that a wise man desires nothing. He never interferes with what happens naturally in the world or in himself. One passage in the Tao Te Ching says: "The highest good is like water. Water excels in giving benefit to all creatures, but never competes. It abides in places that most men despise, and so comes closest to the Tao." The Tao Te Ching also teaches that simplicity and moving with the flow of events are the keys to wise government.

Over time, Taoists began to add more mystical practices in the hope of helping adherents reach a transcendent state. As Taoism evolved into a form of worship, it took on aspects of traditional folk religion, including the growth of a hereditary priesthood that used rituals to submit the people's prayers to various folk gods. Working in trance, the chief priest prayed to other divinities, who were aspects of the Tao, for favors for the people. Taoist groups also sought to attain immortality through magic, meditation, special diets, breath control, or the recitation of scriptures. Besides looking at these "alternative" avenues, many believers pursued their search for knowledge in various pseudosciences, such as alchemy and astrology.

Who was Japan's first divine emperor?

It is the land of shoguns and samurai to most Westerners, a string of four main islands and thousands of smaller ones, which roughly equals the size of the state of California. In the mid-nineteenth century, Japan emerged from hundreds of years of near-isolation and became one of the great empires of modern times. After it fell in the fiery destruction of World War II, it then rose, like a phoenix, from the ashes to become a modern financial and trading empire.

According to Japanese legend, the first emperor of this island nation was Jimmu-tenno, or "divine warrior emperor," who is traditionally dated from 660585 BCE. Believed to be the great-great-great-grandson of the divine sun goddess Amaterasu, Jimmu and his elder brother supposedly marched eastward from a region of Kyushu Island, intent on consolidating their power. After his brother is killed in battle, Jimmu presses on, guided by a heavenly crow. His army continues its march until he reaches Yamato, traditional home of the Japanese emperors. The consensus today is that Jimmu-tenno did not exist, that there were no emperors at that time, and that more than a dozen of Japan's earliest reputed emperors were inventions. Historians today assert that the imperial line actually began in the fifth or sixth century of the Common Era.

When the Yamato emperors were actually established, in a public-relations move designed to establish their authority, they proclaimed Amaterasu as the ancestress of their clan. Stories connecting the gods and the emperor provided the core of the state religion that became known as Shinto ("the way of the gods").

Japan's highly militaristic traditions-begun with the legend of Jimmu and other warrior emperors-continued for centuries, carrying over into the two iconic military institutions of the samurai and shogun. Both inspired legends, but neither had a place in true Japanese mythology. The samurai-immortalized in the films of Akira Kurosawa-were members of a hereditary warrior class, more like the knights of medieval Europe. The early samurai defended the estates of aristocrats, and around 1000 CE, they began to develop a code of strict values and self-discipline, prizing horsemanship, archery skills, and bravery. Above all, they valued total obedience and loyalty to their lords, and personal honor. Dishonor brought an obligation to commit ritual suicide.

The samurai began to grow more powerful in 1192, when the emperor gave the title shogun ("great general") to the military leader Yoritomo of the Minamoto family. Yoritomo established the first shogunate, or warrior government. These militaristic governments then largely ruled Japan from the late 1100s to the mid-1800s. In 1867, as Japan struggled toward modernity, the shogunate was overthrown and powers were restored to the emperor. This scenario became the background for the Tom Cruise film The Last Samurai, a highly romanticized view of the traditional samurai attempting to stave off modern times.

Writer Stefan Lovgren burst that Hollywood "myth" when he wrote in National Geographic, "Mythology colors all history. Sometimes, legend and lore merely embellish the past. Other times, mythology may actually devour history. Such is the case with the samurai, the military aristocracy of feudal Japan. The samurai are known as strong and courageous warriors, schooled with swords. In reality, they were an elitist and (for two centuries) idle class that spent more time drinking and gambling than cutting down enemies on the battlefield."

How did Shinto become an "Asian fusion" religion?

China's influence on ancient Japan was so profound that it is difficult to separate Japanese ideas from those that arrived on the islands from China over the centuries. While an early form of the Japanese belief system of Shinto probably existed before the arrival of Buddhism and Confucian teachings from China, Shinto can rightfully be thought of as an "Asian fusion" religion, because it only becomes a unified religion with a complete mythology after the Chinese influence is felt. There are, for instance, many similarities between Japanese and Chinese Creation accounts, including the idea of a cosmic egg, and a god whose eyes form the moon and sun.

No written records of the origin of Shinto exist, and no one knows when or how Shinto began. A mixture of different beliefs, Shinto means the "way of the gods." It seems to have combined the ancient practices of the Ainu, Japan's earliest inhabitants, now reduced to a small number living in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, with those of the prehistoric people who migrated to Japan from other parts of Asia, including Mongolian people from Siberia. What resulted is a religion centered on nature-mountains, rivers, rocks, and trees. Shinto also acknowledges the force of gods, known as kami, in such processes as creativity, disease, growth, and healing. Emphasizing rituals over philosophy, Shinto pays little mind to life after death.

Beginning about the 500s CE, the Chinese philosophies of Buddhism and Confucianism began to influence Shinto, which absorbed Buddhist deities into its fold and also identified them as kami. Shinto shrines adopted Buddhist images, and Buddhist ceremonies were used for funerals and memorial services throughout Japan. Under the influence of Confucianism, Shinto also emphasized rigorous moral standards of honesty, kindness, and respect for one's elders and superiors.

Shinto myths appear in the Nihongi ("chronicles of Japan") and the Kojiki ("the record of ancient matters"), both of which were written in the 700s CE. These myths tell how the kami created the world and established customs and laws. According to Shinto mythology, the sun goddess Amaterasu was the ancestor of Japan's imperial family. In the late 1800s, the Japanese government invented state Shinto, which stressed patriotism and the divine origins of the Japanese emperor. After Japan's defeat in World War II in 1945, the emperor denied that he was divine, and the government abolished state Shinto.

WHO'S WHO OF JAPANESE GODS Amaterasu The most significant deity in the Japanese pantheon, Amaterasu is the sun goddess who is also known as "the august person who makes the heavens shine." Born from the left eye of the primal Creator god Izanagi as he bathes in a stream, Amaterasu is assigned to rule the realm of the heavens while one of her brothers, Tsuki-Yomi, the moon god, is entrusted with the realms of the night, and another brother, Susano, god of storms, is made ruler of oceans.

In a classic family-feud myth with incestuous overtones, Amaterasu and her brother Susano get into an epic fight. In one version of this core Japanese myth, Susano becomes angry, because he has received what he considers a lesser realm, but in another version, Amaterasu and Susano have a fight to see which of them is greater. Amaterasu chews Susano's sword and exhales, creating three goddesses. In response, Susano eats some of his sister's jewels and exhales five gods. As the fight escalates, Susano creates in the heavens a sort of "manic panic"-he uproots rice fields and ruins temples by smearing his excrement on the walls. When he throws the carcass of a horse into the weaving room where Amaterasu and her attendants make divine clothes for the other gods, she is terrified and flees to the cave of heaven, closing the entrance with a great stone and plunging the world into darkness.

As the darkness descends, evil spirits emerge and worsen the destruction of the world. To save the Creation, the other gods attempt to lure Amaterasu out of the cave by getting a young fertility goddess named Uzume to dance at its entrance. Gyrating in ecstasy, Uzume-also the goddess of laughter-throws off her clothes, whirling frantically, and the other gods roar their approval at this celestial striptease.

Hearing the merriment from inside the cave, Amaterasu cannot resist peering out. The other gods hold up a mirror and string jewels in the trees outside the cave to entice the sun goddess out of hiding. Once she emerges, the world is once again bathed in light, and the evil forces disappear.

Amaterasu is thought to be the ancestor of Jimmu, the legendary first emperor of Japan. Through an unbroken line of descent, all of Japan's emperors claim to be descended from her. The mirror, string of jewels, and a sword used to draw Amaterasu out of the cave are the traditional symbols of the Japanese royal family.

Benten The deity of luck and wealth, Benten is a goddess associated with music and eloquence. Painfully shy, she marries a dragon prince from the dragon people who surround Japan. The dragon is revolting but, because of her sense of duty-a Japanese concept called giri-she reluctantly fulfills her marriage vows. Afterwards, peace comes to the kingdom.

In later times, following the introduction of Buddhism to Japan, Benten became a popular Buddhist deity-goddess of music, eloquence, wealth, love, beauty, and geishas. She also prevents earthquakes by mating with the white snakes that live beneath islands of Japan.

Hachiman Especially popular with the military, Hachiman is the Shinto war god, the protector of the nation and a guardian of children. Nearly one-third of Shinto shrines throughout Japan are dedicated to this deity who is identified with the emperor Ojin (died c. 394 CE), a renowned military leader who was later deified.

Inari The rice god and patron of farmers. Almost every Japanese village has a shrine dedicated to Inari. Depicted as a bearded older man sitting on a sack of rice, and often flanked by two foxes who are his messengers, Inari is regarded as a generous god who oversees wealth and friendship and is revered by merchants, since he brings well-being. His wife, Uke-mochi, is the food goddess.

Izanagi (August Male ) and Izanami (August Female) Descended from a god born from the "boiling ocean of chaos" at the time of Creation, Izanagi is the creator of people. He is helped in this effort by Izanami, his sister, whose first child is a monster and whose second offspring is an island. These curious births occur because Izanami speaks before her brother does, and in Japanese custom the male must go first-which might give you a hint of the traditional role of women in Japan. After they realize their error, all goes well, and the two gods produce people, the islands of Japan, and other gods.

According to the myth, Izanami dies in childbirth when she gives birth to a fire god. However, even in death, she is a powerful creator, whose vomit, urine, and excrement become other gods. Distraught over his consort-sister's death, Izanagi follows her to the underworld, or "land of gloom." In a story with echoes of the Greek Orpheus descending into Hades, he is warned not to look at her, because she has eaten the food of the underworld and is already decomposing. But he does as he pleases. Furious she has been seen covered with maggots, Izanami sends a horde of she-demons after him and promises to kill 1,000 people on earth every day-the mythical reason for death. Able to escape, Izanagi rolls a huge stone over the entrance to the underworld and declares himself divorced-one of the few cases of divine divorce in mythology. This story also reflects a Shinto attitude of horror at death, decay, and dissolution.

As he is bathing after this close call, Izanagi washes the dirt off himself, and it forms harmful spirits. But he makes some good gods as well. Amaterasu comes from his left eye, and Tsuki-Yomi, the moon god, from his right eye. (These stories seem to reflect the influence of the Chinese myth of Panku, whose eyes also become the sun and moon.) The infamous storm god Susano comes from Izanagi's nose and immediately starts to cause trouble.

O-kuni-nushi The god of medicine and sorcery, whose name means "great land master," O-kuni-nushi is credited with inventing healing. He is often accompanied by Sukuna-Biko, a dwarf god skilled in both agriculture and medicine, who knows almost everything that is going on in the world.

O-kuni-nushi also figures in an intriguing myth. When O-kuninushi stops to help a wounded rabbit that his seventy brothers have passed by, the good deed earns him the right to marry the daughter of the god Susano. This is because the rabbit is actually another god in disguise. Angry that they missed such an opportunity, O-kuni-nushi's brothers kill him, but he is able to regenerate himself. Displeased that his daughter is to marry, Susano subjects his future son-in-law to a series of tests. First, O-kuni-nushi is placed in a room full of snakes, but his bride gives him a magical scarf that protects him. Next, he sleeps in a room filled with poisonous insects, but again, he is saved by his bride's magical scarf. Finally, he is trapped in a great grass fire, but is led to safety in an underground chamber by a friendly mouse.

In return for his father-in-law's tests, O-kuni-nushi ties Susano's hair to the roof beams and makes off with Susano's magic bow and harp. The storm god gains new respect for his son-in-law and allows him to rule over a province in central Japan.

O-wata-tsumi The chief god of the sea, O-wata-tsumi is a god created when Izanagi purifies himself after his descent into the underworld. (In other accounts, O-wata-tsumi is descended from O-kuni-nushi.) O-wata-tsumi is significant in Japanese mythical history because he is considered another divine ancestor of the first emperor, Jimmu.

Susano (Susanowo) The god of storms and the divine embodiment of the forces of disorder, Susano is known as the "valiant, swift, impetuous deity." He is born when the divine father Izanagi clears his nose as he bathes in a stream. When the universe is divided up, and Susano's sister, Amaterasu, the sun goddess, is given the heavens, Susano thinks that he has gotten shortchanged. Banished by his father for his defiance, Susano begins his long struggle to overthrow Amaterasu and nearly brings catastrophe to the world in what is called "the divine crisis." Terrified by her brother, Amaterasu withdraws into a cave, depriving the world of sunlight.

After the crisis, Susano is expelled from heaven and later wins some measure of respect by defeating the eight-headed dragon, Yamato-no-orichi-who had eaten seven of eight daughters of the local king and who sounds like the inspiration for Japan's favorite monster, Godzilla. Susano accomplishes the feat by filling eight bowls with rice wine and luring the monstrous serpent to drink. Once the serpent monster becomes drowsy, Susano cuts open the creature's stomach and finds a magical sword hidden inside. As a reward for his feat, he is given the kingdom he has saved, as well as a princess, Kusanada-hime, also called Rice Paddy Princess. Their daughter, who marries the medicine god O-kuni-nushi, is thought to be an ancestor of the Japanese emperors.

Since 1946, when the Japanese emperor Hirohito denied his divinity, after which the Japanese Constitution ended "state Shinto," Japan has been a parliamentary democracy, in which the emperor is the head of state and the prime minster is the elected head of government. But old ideas still die hard. A recent controversy flared in Japan over new regulations requiring teachers to stand in classrooms and face the Japanese flag while singing the national anthem. Banned for three years during the postwar American occupation of Japan, the country's "rising sun" flag is a vestige of the old connection between Japan-or Nipon, which means "rising sun"-and the sun goddess.

But many Japanese feel that the rising-sun flag is a symbol of Japan's militaristic and imperialist past, when troops stormed mercilessly through Asia in the period before and during World War II. The public resistance to the requirement got support from an unexpected source. According to the New York Times, Emperor Akihito himself publicly voiced his opposition to the flag law.

ANCIENT PEOPLE, NEW WORLDS.

O, wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world That has such people in't!

-WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, The Tempest (act V, scene 1) F.

or centuries, Africa, the Americas, Australia, and the Pacific islands existed in mysterious solitude, lands completely set apart from the "known" world by vast oceans, jungles, deserts, and wide expanses. Africa's existence had been acknowledged since ancient times, but it was largely impenetrable due to its forbidding geography. The Americas, which occupy 28 percent of the world's landmass, spread from the frozen north of one hemisphere to the "bottom of the earth" in the other. Australia and many thousands of islands in the Pacific were beyond the imaginings of the Western world. Yet all of these places were home to ancient peoples, with long-standing societies, myths, religions, and traditions well insulated from foreign influences. That all changed forever after the fifteenth century. In the European "Age of Discovery," Portuguese sailors opened up Africa as they made their way to Asia by sea. Christopher Columbus soon followed the Portuguese lead, spurred on by a desire to find still faster routes to the gold, jade, silks, and spicy taste sensations desired by a European palate weary of salted venison. Sailing under the Spanish flag, Columbus set out in 1492 on the first of four voyages that unlocked territories undreamed of and gave Spain the lead in penetrating and then plundering the "New World," first in the Caribbean, then in both South and North America. Spain's dominance in the Americas was soon challenged by the English, French, Dutch, and other Europeans-each staking a claim in the names of their kings and their God to large chunks of land already occupied by tens of millions of people. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the "discovery" extended to the Pacific islands, where the "Aborigines" of Australia and other natives of the Pacific would meet a similar fate. Millions of these people would be collectively enslaved, converted, displaced, and almost entirely wiped out, along with much of their mythic legacy.

So the story of these "new worlds" is a story of both beginnings and endings. For the Europeans, it was an extraordinary period of empire-building, colonization, and subjugation. But for the people they "discovered," it was the end of cherished traditions. Africa was teeming with cultures, religions, and gods when the Portuguese arrived eager to baptize the "heathens" they found on Africa's West Coast and along the Congo River. But the zealous Portuguese quickly learned that Arabs had already "discovered" much of Africa and begun to import Islam. In time, Africa would become a battleground in the centuries-old conflict between Christianity and Islam, with native myth and belief caught in the deadly crossfire.

The situation was similar in the Americas, where, prior to the European arrival, a stunning array of cultures and civilizations had flourished, from the "Halls of Montezuma" and Mayan pyramids of Central America to the lofty Andean cities of the Incas. Presumably the descendants of the people who wandered from Siberia to the Americas during the waning of the last great Ice Age, the inhabitants of the Americas ranged from the natives of the Arctic region to the tribes of the American Northeast, to the settled farmers of the Southeast, and down to the monumental civilizations of Mexico, Central America, and Peru. But the gods and legends of the Americas, like those of Africa, would soon come crashing headlong before Europe's Christian soldiers, with devastating results for the natives of America. The same scenario would play out in Australia. Home to hundreds of thousands of Aborigines, Australia became a British experiment in exporting its crime problem by converting a whole continent into a prison colony-until gold was discovered there. As miners swept in, missionaries were never far behind.

Apart from this shared destiny of destruction and decimation, however, there are other fascinating parallels between the people of these "new worlds."