@Hyolobrika @MercurialBuilding @hidden @Hyolobrika @MercurialBuilding @hidden Confucianism is the philosophical underpinning for the hierarchical nature of Asian societies. It says that, in order for the individual to be perfected and for society to prosper, relationships must be in harmony. These relationships are hierarchical: child-parent (filial piety), individual-family, family-society, servant-emperor (loyalty). Although some Confucians have stressed the importance of standing up to evil leaders, in practice a 'harmonious' relationship is almost always one of total obedience.

It is true that state power has twisted the original meaning of Confucianism just as happens with other religions and philosophies. The regrettable thing is that Confucianism groups together the different kinds of hierarchical relationships: if the state redefines the servant-emperor relationship, then the child-parent relationship must change in parallel. In contrast to the Western idea of (adversarial) separation of powers, Confucianism's emphasis on 'harmony' makes it easy for evil to bleed across different social domains.

I'm no expert on Eastern philosophy myself, having been born and raised in the West. But I have suffered at the hands of Confucius. I had several abusive teachers in elementary / middle school, and my parents never stood up for me because "the student must respect the teacher." Learning the relationship of respect was more important than learning the material itself (which my teachers' behaviors were keeping me from doing). My parents also viewed themselves as being 'below' the teachers, because the teachers are representatives of society / the state, and that sits above "family."

Note that none of this 'obedience' entails following specific written rules. That's the difference between Confucianism and Legalism (another school of Chinese thought). In Confucianism, proper behavior is supposed to come from proper attitudes and relationships. What this means in practice is that, if you behave 'improperly' - which is easy to do when rules aren't explicitly laid out - then your parents will infer that you have improper attitudes. When a kid acts out, it is because they lack filial piety, they "want" to be a bad kid, not because they "lack understanding" or "don't know any better" as Western parents might say.

In modern times, China no longer espouses Confucianism at the state level, but they use Confucianism as a friendly face for exerting soft power overseas. This is because a Westerner is less wary of Confucianism than "socialism with Chinese characteristics" or "Xi Jinping Thought." See here for more details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius_Institute