From Self to Society
Personal cultivation as the foundation of social harmony.
Confucianism connects personal virtue to social order. When individuals cultivate themselves, families are harmonious. When families are harmonious, the state is well-governed. When states are well-governed, there is peace under heaven.
The cultivation of the person is the root of everything besides.
Personal cultivation is the foundation of social order.
Great Learning
Written about in
- What Confucianism says about order in human life
The same text makes the general claim that cultivating the person is the root of everything else. Social order is presented as an outcome of private character rather than a structure imposed on it.
- What Confucianism says about leading others
The Great Learning chains cultivated person to ordered family to governed state to peace under heaven, and names the person the root. Confucianism has no theory of a sound institution run by bad people; everything rests on individual character.