How Tall is Confucius?

Answer:

Confucius’s actual height is between 1.82 and 1.9 meters, with an error of no more than 5 centimeters.

Sima Qian’s book, The Historical Records, records that the height of Confucius is nine feet six inches.

According to the ruler of the Western Han Dynasty, Confucius was 221.76 cm tall, which is comparable to the height of Chinese basketball star Yao Ming.

However, people need clarification about this record. The controversy centers on the standard used to measure this height in The Historical Records. If the measurement of the Han Dynasty were the standard, Confucius’s height would be as described in the previous section.

Some records in The Historical Records are taken from previous literature. Therefore, Sima Qian likely quoted Confucius’s height directly from the literature without re-measuring it with the Han measurement.

Confucius was a native of the state of Lu (鲁国) during the Spring and Autumn period, and Lu was famous for preserving the rituals and culture of the Zhou dynasty. Therefore, it is likely that this record was measured using the ruler of the state of Lu.

Using these two standards, we can speculate that Confucius is about 1.9 meters tall.

In addition, in 2015, a screen painted with a portrait of Confucius was unearthed from the tomb of Marquis Haihun (海昏侯墓), which is the earliest portrait of Confucius ever found.

One of the sentences on the screen says that Confucius is 7 feet 9 inches tall. If this figure is generated according to the ruler of the Zhou Dynasty, Confucius would be about 1.56 meters, which is inconsistent with the record in The Historical Records.

Therefore, this figure is more likely based on the standard in the Han Dynasty. Therefore, Confucius’s height is 1.82 meters.

However, as admirers of Confucius, we do not need to pay much attention to his height. But instead, we should attach greater importance to his thoughts and virtues.