| Confucianism was founded by Confucius
in the Spring and Autumn period (770 B.C. - 476 B.C.),
and further developed by Mencius,
thus called The Way of Confucius and Mencius. In the Han
dynasty, Confucianism was adopted and other schools suppressed
by the Han rulers to consolidate their reign. Then Confucianism
flourished and became dominant in the Chinese history
and culture for almost 2 millenniums. Later it even spread
to Korea and Japan and has been influential in the two
cultures.
Confucius and his Confucianism had so great an impact
on the Chinese civilization that you can't imagine how
Chinese culture and history will be otherwise. In the
whole 2,000 years, Confucianism has influenced the Chinese
attitude toward life, set the patterns of living and
standards of social value, established standards for
training government officials, and provided the background
for Chinese political theories and institutions.
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