Confucius
During the Song dynasty, the scholar Zhu Xi (AD 1130–1200) added ideas from Daoism and Buddhism into Confucianism. In his life, Zhu Xi was largely ignored, but not long after his death, his ideas became the new orthodox view of what Confucian texts actually meant. Modern historians view Zhu Xi as having created something rather different and call his way of thinking "Neo-Confucianism". Neo-Confucianism held sway in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam until the 19th century.
The works of Confucius were first translated into European languages by Jesuit missionaries in the 16th century during the late Ming dynasty. The first known effort was by Michele Ruggieri, who returned to Italy in 1588 and carried on his translations while residing in Salerno. Matteo Ricci started to report on the thoughts of Confucius, and a team of Jesuits—Prospero Intorcetta, Philippe Couplet, and two others—published a translation of several Confucian works and an overview of Chinese history in Paris in 1687. François Noël, after failing to persuade ClementXI that Chinese veneration of ancestors and Confucius did not constitute idolatry, completed the Confucian canon at Prague in 1711, with more scholarly treatments of the other works and the first translation of the collected works of Mencius. It is thought that such works had considerable importance on European thinkers of the period, particularly among the Deists and other philosophical groups of the Enlightenment who were interested by the integration of the system of morality of Confucius into Western civilization.
Disciples of Confucius
It is not certain what state Bu Shang (卜商) was a native of, but he was said to have been born either in Wei or Wen. His courtesy name was Zixia (子夏). He was 45 years younger than Confucius and lived to a great age, for in 406 BC (73 years after Confucius's death) he was recorded serving at the court of Prince Wan of Wei, to whom he gave copies of some of the classics. He is represented as an extensively well-read and exacting scholar but one without great comprehension of mind. The "Maojing" is said to contain his philosophical views. Gongyang Gao and Guliang Chi studied the Spring and Autumn Annals with him. When Zixia died, his son wept so greatly it is said that he became blind. In the Temple of Confucius, he is placed in the fifth east position, among "The Wise Ones".