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Confucius is traditionally dated to 551–479 BCE during Eastern Zhou.

The Claim

Confucius lived during the Eastern Zhou dynasty in ancient China and is traditionally dated to 551–479 BCE.

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The Short Version

The evidence strongly supports this statement. Standard scholarly and institutional references consistently place Confucius in the Eastern Zhou dynasty’s Spring and Autumn period and conventionally date him to 551–479 BCE. The dates are traditional rather than contemporaneously documented, but the claim already states that qualification.

Caveats

  • The dates 551–479 BCE are conventional traditional dates, not securely established from contemporaneous records.
  • Confucius is more precisely placed in the Spring and Autumn period, which is a subdivision of the Eastern Zhou dynasty.
  • Lower-quality web sources in the evidence list are unnecessary here; the conclusion rests on stronger academic and institutional references.

The Receipts

  1. Confucius

    Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

  2. Confucius

    Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

  3. Eastern Zhou Dynasty Begins in China | History | Research Starters

    EBSCO

  4. Eastern Zhou China

    W.W. Norton

  5. Zhou dynasty (ca. 1050–221 BCE)

    National Museum of Asian Art (Smithsonian)

  6. Zhou Dynasty

    World History Encyclopedia

  7. Religions of the World Second Edition - Kenyon College

    Kenyon College

  8. Confucius: His Life, Times, and Legacy

    University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

  9. 孔子行年考（八）（公元前480年——公元前479年）

    中国孔子网

  10. 孔子事略

    桃園市政府民政局

+ 4 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

Ancient ChinaConfuciusEastern Zhou Dynasty