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.
Khoo Kheng-Hor
Sun Tzu (pinyin: Sun Zi; c. 544 BC – 496 BC) was a native of the Qi state (now Huimin county in Shandong) during the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history, that was characterised by warring factions and a fragmented state. He came to the attention of King He Lu of Wu, who was impressed by his 13-chapter military treatise, "The Art of War". In 512 BC, He Lu made Sun Tzu his Commander-in-Chief of the Wu army. For almost 20 years, the armies of Wu were victorious over their hereditary enemies, the kingdoms of Chu and Yue. In 496 BC, after He Lu died from his wounds in battle, his son, Fu Chai succeeded him. After numerous victories in battles, Fu Chai became arrogant and began to indulge in merrymaking. In time, the king started to disregard Sun Tzu's counsel and began to distance himself from Sun Tzu. Sensing this, Sun Tzu wisely gave up his position and left Wu for Qi in retirement. Fu Chai and his generals did not follow Sun Tzu's precepts and his kingdom was subsequently conquered by Chu in 473 BC. Out of shame, Fu Chai committed suicide after he had fled with the remnants of his defeated army.