Confucius (551-479　B.C.) is remembered by Chinese of all levels of life for various reasons. One noticeable one is his approach to education. he stimulated his students to think by posing questions. He also maintained that the molding of the personality was of prime importance in education, and everything else followed from this. Thus, if the tales told after him have any truth in them, he tailored his methods to each student's needs. 　　　　
　　His teaching style was more in the way of informal conversations than formal classes. Roughly speaking, his discourse covered three fields, the classics and philosophy, including his views on reforms which would bring the government of the ducal states back to what he considered the ideal of ancient times, the forms and ceremonies of those past times; and poetry and music. 　　　　
　　He was an avid lover of music, which he once remarked could help mold kindness and uprightness of character. Wherever he went in his travels though the states, he collected the songs of the people, which he used in his teaching, and near the end of his life edited the ancient collection The Book of Songs. 　　　　
　　Altogether at one time or another some 3,000 young men came to study under him. The 72 who were the brightest and spent the most time with him came to be known as his disciples. Some of them went with him on his travels to other　states.