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Confucius believed a harmonious society was one where everyone understood and embraced their role, and were educated in proper virtue. In Confucian philosophy, most societal structures mirror the relationship of a family, so just as a children are taught to respect their parents, so are servants taught to respect their superiors in social rank. This respect was to be earned, however, by equal virtue of the parents and masters in taking care of those below them with benevolence, and other virtues (the five major virtues being: Benevolence (Ren), Righteousness (Yi), Propriety (Li), Wisdom (Zhi), and Trustworthiness (Xin)).

Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, who united the warring tribes that Confucius had lived under, ended up supposedly killing an enormous number of Confucian scholars, and banned Confucius thought in favor of Legalism. Legalism is basically the same thing, where everyone in society is to embrace their role in society, except without all the blabbering on and on about how it is virtuous and good. They are to embrace their role because that is the law, and if they don't the emperor is going to cut their head off. More or less.