Confused about Confucius

I was reading the local paper today when I saw a quote by Confucius. I thought, "Oh my gosh, don't they know Confucius is bad!" and thought about how we, or, rather, I, say things off the top of my head, showing my extreme ignorance of all things beyond the borders of West Texas. Then I asked myself why I thought Confucius was bad, and realized I had not investigated the facts to justify my own reasoning.

I recently read The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan, where the character Winnie blasted the Chinese Philosopher because of the oppression of women during the time in China in which she was living, which apparently was part of Confucian belief. I guess I could get all down on Confucius for that, but it would be a pot calling the kettle black situation, or some sort of hypocritical thought, because, historically, women have been shunned in our own country and in our own religions. Shoot, the black man got the vote before gals did, and you know how vigorously racist people were back in the day. Just sayin'.

Also, I think it's ironic that Christians would quote a philosopher who was considered agnostic.

After a little perusing, it seems that the original Confucian ideologies were twisted to fit whatever religious or political situations that were occurring in China. I'm highly suspicious that this is a global phenomenon.