The leading thinkers of the day each proposed their own solutions. The Confucianists called on people to participate actively in the world's affairs by extending the existing family ethics of filial piety and fraternal duty--respect and obedience to one's parents and elder brothers--to apply to the monarch and his ministers and officials. Hence the Great Sage Confucius has been regarded as advocating "reform within the existing system."
諸子各自起而說法，儒家要人由周遭生活主動參與世界，由孝悌人倫擴及君臣，至聖先師孔子也因此被視為「在體制內改革」。