Confucius spent much of his life travelling between the small warring states of eastern China, offering advice on government to rulers who mostly ignored it. His teaching centres on ritual, filial duty and the cultivation of character — the idea that a well-ordered society is made of well-ordered people, not good rules. The Analects, compiled by students after his death, records his remarks rather than a system. They are quoted worldwide, usually stripped of the specific social order they assumed.
