Confucian China

Professor Sam Crane argues that "since Legalism was actually the more fundamental governing principle, China has never really been a Confucian society" — The Impossibility of a Confucian Society — but suggests that a remarkable act of "spontaneous reverence" shows "what Confucius worked to achieve: an attention to proper behavior so consistent and intense that it eventually produces a near automatic moral response" — Humanity in Shanghai.