participant should understand and conform to his/her proper role. If each one does what he is supposed to do according to Li, the society will run very smoothly. As a ruler, one must follow the ruler's rule; otherwise he will lose his position. Force, threats, and punishment were thought to be the unwise ways to solve problems. Starting from individual and family, people acting rightly could reform and perfect the society. Therefore, Confucianism was the affirmation of accepted values and norms of behavior in primary social institutions and basic human relationships.Confucian values are so closely linked with everyday life that they sometimes seem trivial. Everyday life is so familiar that we do not take its moral content seriously. We are each a friend to someone, or a parent, or certainly the child of a parent. On the other hand, Confucians remind us that the familiar ideals of friendship, parenthood, and filiality are far from trivial; in real life we only rarely attain these ideals. We all too often just go through the motions, too preoccupied to give our full attention to the relationship. If we consistently and wholeheartedly realized our potential to be the very best friend, parent, son, or daughter humanly possible, we would establish a level of moral excellence and our society would develop into a "utopia". Thus it can be seen that Confucianism is a philosophy that takes the actions of everyday life as the arena of moral and spiritual fulfillment. In this sense, Confucianism is a kind of religion. Confucius thought that humans are not born to be blessed with Li. However, Li can be achieved by hard study and one's strong will to achieve Li. Therefore, Confucius stressed the significance of educating people. As an earnest practitioner of his teaching, Confucius is said to have taught more than 3,000 students, 72 of whom became distinguished scholars.Fingarette notices that, as a starting point of a philosophy, Confucianism...
