Confucius was a Chinese  thinker and social philosopher  of the Spring and Autumn Period . Confucius' principles had a basis in common Chinese tradition and belief. He championed strong familial loyalty, ancestor worship , respect of elders by their children (and, according to later interpreters, of husbands by their wives), and the family as a basis for an ideal government. He expressed the well-known principle, "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself", one of the earlier versions of the Ethic of reciprocity .

    His social ascendancy linked him to the growing class of sh  (士), a class whose status lay between that of the old nobility  and the common people, that comprised men who sought social positions on the basis of talents and skills, rather than heredity. As a child, Confucius was said to have enjoyed putting ritual vases  on the sacrifice table. Confucius is reported to have worked as a shepherd, cowherd, clerk, and a book-keeper. His mother died when Confucius was 23, and he entered three years of mourning for the loss of his mother.