It may be necessary here to give a very brief sketch of Confucian thought and its paramount influence on Chinese culture. Confucius (551–479 bc) lived during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (770–221 bc), which was an unprec-edented era of cultural flowering amidst conflict and civil strife in the history of China. As the “First Teacher of China” (Jin & Cortazzi, 2006), …