Confucianism puts ritualism before legalism. This means that if people are taught the proper ways to behave, they will know why they should do the right thing. However, if a society merely prescribes punishment for transgressions, people will do what they should, but may never understand why.

"Lead the people with administrative injunctions and put them in their place with penal law, and they will avoid punishments but will be without a sense of shame. Lead them with excellence and put them in their place through roles and ritual practices, and in addition to developing a sense of shame, they will order themselves harmoniously." (Analects II, 3)

Relationships

One recurring theme in Confucianism is relationships, and the differing duties that occur from the varient status one holds in relation to others. For example, people have duties to both older and younger persons. The younger person owes respect and deference to the senior person, but the older person also owes care and concern for the younger one. This theme consistently manifests itself in many aspects of East Asian culture even to this day. It is this concept of right relations that led to the development of the idea of filial piety.

Filial piety

One of the most important precepts of Confucius is having respect for one`s parents, at least for the father. The respect for the father is considered a virtue and is reflected in other relationships: ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, elder and younger brother, and between friends Specific duties are prescribed to each of the principals in these sets of relationships. Such duties were also extended to the dead, where the living stood as sons to their deceased family. This led to the veneration of ancestors.

 

Confucius recommended that the same sort of loyalty of a son for his father ought to exist in a subject for his ruler. The ruler earned this respect by being a good leader. Although Confucius advocated a duty of the leader to the subject, this precept was subverted to mean the ruler was due unquestioned obedience. Emphasis was placed more on the obligation of the ruled to the ruler, and less on the ruler's obligation to his subjects.

Humaneness

Confucius maintained that correct relationships would occur if people were led by his version of the Golden Rule. Although it is a negative statement of the common slogan, it still carries the same meaning. Do not do to others what you would not like them to do to you The idea was, that if this were followed, it would help to advance the notion of right relationships.

The perfect gentleman

The term Junzi is a term central to classical Confucianism. Literally meaning son of a ruler, prince, or noble, the ideal of a gentleman, proper man, or perfect man is an ideal that all good Confucianists model. A perfect man is one who combines the qualities of saint, scholar, and gentleman. A hereditary elitism was bound up with the concept, and gentlemen were expected to act as moral guides to the rest of society. They were to cultivate themselves morally, participate in the correct performance of ritual, show filial piety and loyalty where these are due, and
cultivate humaneness. The great example of the perfect gentleman is Confucius himself. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of his life was that he was never awarded the high official position which he desired.

The opposite of the Junzi was the Xiaorn , literally small person or petty person. Like English small , the word in this context in Chinese can mean petty in mind and heart, narrowly self-interested, greedy, superficial, and materialistic.