Confucianism is concerned with a vision of a more perfect society in which rulers and subjects, nobles and commoners, parents and children, and men and women wholeheartedly accepted the roles assigned to them, devoting themselves to their responsibilities to others. Confucianism considered the family the basic unit of society. It extolled the idea of filial piety. This meant that children must respect their parents and serve them in many ways.

Confucianism had five cardinal relationships. One was between father and son. The others were between ruler and subject, husband and wife, elder and younger broth

The highest virtue of Confucianism was “ren.” It translates into perfect goodness, benevolence, humanity, human heartedness, and nobility. It means deep concern for the well being of others and orientation that makes right action seem effortless.

ers, and friend and friend. Confucianism also defined the term gentlemen, to mean a man of moral cultivation rather than a man of noble birth. But, it did not advocate social equality; instead, it minimized the importance of class distinctions and opened the way for intelligent and talented people to rise in the social scale.

Unlike Confucianism’s notion that government could be based on virtue and ritual, Legalism had to be based on the power of reward and punishment. Rulers were urged to be firm yet consistent. Legalists had a highly authoritarian view of order, and that there is no

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