Julia Barone, age 16, of White Plains, N.Y., for her question:

IS CONFUCIANISM A RELIGION?

Confucianism is a philosophy based on the ideas of the Chinese philosopher Confucius. It originated about 500 B.C. and until A.D. 1900, it was the most important single force in Chinese life.

Many people consider Confucianism a religion. It is not. Confucianism has no clergymen and does not teach the worship of a God or gods or the existence of a life after death. Confucianism can more accurately be considered a guide to morality and good government.

Confucius was the most influential and respected philosopher in Chinese history. He was born about 551 B.C. at a time when constant warfare raged among the many states that made up China. Confucius feared that this threat to orderly social life would lead to the distruction of civilization.

Confucius believed his society could be saved if it emphasized sincerity in personal and public conduct. The key to orderly social life was the gentleman which Confucius defined not as a person of noble birth, but as one of good moral character.

Confucius wrote many rules and sayings that became part of Confucianism. His version of the golden rule: What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others.

Confucius believed that when gentlemen were rulers, their moral example would inspire those beneath them to lead good lives. Virtuous behavior by rulers, he said, had a grater effect in governing than did laws and codes of punishment.

Confucius died about 579 B.C. while largely unknown. But his followers spread his ideas. Confucian philosophers who followed stressed the belief that men were born good.

In 124 B.C., the government established the Imperial University to educate future government officials in Confucian ideals. The university based its teachings on the five books of Confucian thought called the "Five Classics."

Mastery of the "Five Classics" as time went by became proof of moral fitness and the chief sign of a gentleman. The early Confucianists concerned themselves primarily with the needs of society.

From about A.D. 200 to 600, interest in Confucianism declined in China. Many Chinese turned instead to Buddhism and Taoism. These religions dealt with problems of human existence that Confucianism largely ignored, such as the meaning of suffering and death.

But a revival of interest in Confucius' philosophy began in the 600s, and by the 700s, candidates for government jobs had to take a civil service examination based on Confucian ideas.

Confucianism continued to actively influence Chinese life until it came into conflict with Western ideas, especially Communism, in the early 1900s.

Today the Chinese government opposes Confucianism beause, they say, the philosophy encourages people to look to the past rather than to the future. But Confucian ideas remain widespread in other countries in East Asia.