Thousands of years ago, there were great social changes in the Far Eastern nations that helped them establish codes of purpose and responsibility within the confinements of the hierarchical communities. These changes came in the forms of two distinct religious philosophies; one that sought to refine the current social hierarchy and let people conduct themselves accordingly and the other focused more on forces outside of the human world.
Confucianism essentially focused on the needs and desires of each individual, but it put emphasis on the importance of education so that people could obtain a high sense of morality or "virtuous behavior." To Confucius, any form of abusive force or law didn't guarantee individual virtue. He believed people were born good and naturally want to do the right thing, but they needed moral leaders and a decent education in order to good consciences. No one had to become a priest to pass on the teachings of Confucianism; they just needed to continue developing as a person. Another central message to all its followers was the necessity of making the most out of life with the availability of food, producing of children, and passing down important life lessons to your descendants as an elderly person. Similar to Hinduism, Confucianism was very centered on human values and prosperity, regardless of one's social status. It had a concept of another world after death, but Confucius was more concerned with human affairs.
The second major religious philosophy, Daoism, teaches its followers to look to the universe or cosmos for guidance and not rely on human insight. To this day, it's not entirely clear what the main focus of Daoism is as many of the priests wrote riddles about the natural world and how human societal strives mean nothing. A couple of messages were created to persuade people to just let everything go the way it's always been going in the natural world and not make any improvements to it. In the years after the Han dynasty, Daoism grew such a massive following as the worship of nature and the supernatural became common practices, as well as the use of magic and the pursuit for immortality. These activities led Daiost believers to selfishly seek their own pleasures, creating a bad relationship between them and the Confucians. However, the Daiost discovery of medicinal herbs helped them regain favor from others since this event enhanced Chinese medicine as the time.
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