In the times of violent upheaval that brought out the worst in the human experience, Confucius was believed to have had an epiphamy: use li, also translated "tradition," to put society back into a stable state while not instigating violence. He thought to manipulate tradition gradually, basing much of it on Golden Age of China, thereby making it a conscious project, a deliberate tradition, that incorporated that which would be beneficial and rejecting the rest. With practice, he taught, the lowest person could be like the ruler through li, and this should be his goal. The attainment of this goal, what he taught to be the highest form of moral development, a person achieved jen, or humanity in its fullest; their "natural inclinations are all in line with tao (Hansen, Chad. '95 Grolier's)."
To give a few examples of what the Confucian project intended:
Family relationships are stressed, especially the parent-child one, because the family is the basic building block of society and unstable families lead to unstable and unproductive societies.
Children are taught to respect the learned more than the warriors because war is counterproductive whereas knowledge is true power to make change.
The heirarchy is kept intact, keeping internal war from ensuing, by teaching the people to participate in the state rituals, putting the emperor on the proverbial pillar, and by teaching that there is a corresponding heirarchy in heaven, so the emperor is justified in his place and the people should be satisfied in theirs if they strive for jen.