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I can variously find references to this, e.g. on Tex Antoine's Wikipedia page, this article on Salon. However, I've not been able to verify this directly, with all the sources seemingly second-hand. None of them say "in this ancient Chinese book, this chapter this page, Confucius said [quote]". Even Wikipedia doesn't sound that confident, since it says "Also, Confucius did not really say that quote".

Did Confucius really say this? If so, where, and what was the original Chinese text?

Allure
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  • Echo to @LangZhou's answer. I am a native Chinese speaker, Confucius never said such a thing or anything similar about rape, as far as I know. – Nobody Mar 26 '20 at 04:00
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because there is no claim here - it was intended as a joke. – Oddthinking Mar 26 '20 at 06:09
  • @Oddthinking I don't get it - who was the person joking, Tex Antoine, Confucius, me, you? – Allure Mar 26 '20 at 06:19
  • @Allure He means Tex Antoine was joking. – F1Krazy Mar 26 '20 at 07:57
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    I'm not sure how a definitive statement that "Confucius did not really say that" would be considered as "doesn't sound that confident". It sounds _very_ confident to me - confident that the quote is fake. – Dave Sherohman Mar 26 '20 at 09:08
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    First notice that the Salon article's only reference to Confucius is citing Antoine, so there is a really only one person who ever made the "claim": Antoine. Antoine is just using a [common (racist) joke format](https://laffgaff.com/confucius-say-jokes/). It was never intended to be a serious claim about the works of Confucius. – Oddthinking Mar 26 '20 at 09:36
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    There must be thousands of ["Confucius say..."](https://deceth.com/27-confucius-say-quotes-that-are-actually-funny/) quotes out there. They aren't supposed to be taken to mean that is what Confucius actually said: it's a framework. – Weather Vane Mar 26 '20 at 10:47

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I am not an expert in Confucius, but as a Chinese, I am pretty sure this quote isn't from Confucius.

Why? Because such a sentence contradicts the social tradition of ancient China. When Confucius lived, which is about 2500 years ago, sex are social taboos, especially in Confucius's theory(actually distance and so-called 'caution' between genders are emphasized in this theory). From this aspect, Confucius would not likely mention anything relating to such taboos, not to mention 'rape'. To be frank, the concept 'rape' may didn't even exist back to that time.

However, it is true that Confucius has some theory about how people should react when in bad situations. He believed we should be calm and peaceful even facing difficulties, and never gave up faith.

For example, here is a quote from Lunyu Chapter 12, phrasing his student Yan Hui:

What a man was Hui! A dish of rice, a gourd of water, in a low alleyway; no man can bear such misery! Yet Hui never fell from mirth. What a man he was!

贤哉，回也！一箪食，一瓢饮，在陋巷，人不堪其忧，回也不改其乐。贤哉，回也！

Actually this is a concept rooted in Chinese culture, which is “随遇而安” in Chinese.

But, please notice this concept is totally different from the quote in your question, rape is not a 'difficult situation', it's crime.

Community
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Lang Zhou
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    "But, please notice this concept is totally different from the quote in your question, rape is not a 'difficult situation', it's crime." They're not mutually exclusive. And you just said that the concept of rape didn't exist in that culture, so how could it have been a crime? – Acccumulation Mar 26 '20 at 05:01
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    This answer, although informative, would do better with citations – PC Luddite Mar 26 '20 at 05:24
  • @Acccumulation Perhaps I didn't make it clear. The last sentence I said is how we regard rape in the modern ethic system, and it is used to prove that the concept I mentioned in the previous paragraphs doesn't apply to the case of rape. Also, in ancient Chinese scholar's perspectives, the 'difficult situation' normally refers to something such as hunger, exile, poverty, unsuccessful career etc., which are believed by many scholars that these disasters are posed to them by divine, rather than a concrete criminal. – Lang Zhou Mar 27 '20 at 02:04