First, achieving social harmony can be a big responsibility and so Confucius says that each person must first attain harmony in a small group. This small group, moreover, is identified by Confucius as the family. The family is the basic community in which one can attain social harmony. It is in the family that the person creates and develops the right kind of virtues needed for him to carry a big responsibility sooner. It is in the family that a person learns how to act properly in accordance to the virtues. To be a good person outside of the family can be attained if the person learns and shows how to be good within the family. To be a good family man can be an indication that the person has really created and developed in him the virtues that a good states man must have.
The second step is the extension of the first step. Social harmony can be acquired through the partnership of the government and the people. The government cannot bring in harmony in the state without the help of the people and vice versa. The two must must help each other. With this, Confucius is saying that the state is the extension of the family. What the person has created and developed in the family is broaden in the state. If the family man is to be a states man, he is to protect the welfare of the state. He is to take care of the health and relationship of the people just like what he has been doing as a family man. The virtues demanded of the family to a person is the same as in the state but it requires much in terms of value as it is also imposes a higher responsibility.
The third step in achieving social harmony concerns more on how the states man or the government official runs the state. Confucius said that the government official must run the state not by the use of law or force, as it only makes the state unstable and the people jealous which will eventually end up in chaos, but a government which is run by virtues. Doing what is good and proper. The leader must set as a role model for the people to work. The leader must inspire people to also help in achieving social harmony.
The last step in achieving social harmony is creating a change in the state. This is to say that with the influence of the leader, the people, as a family, worked together and created a change or shift in the state. They made the social harmony achievable.
All these steps contribute to the unity of the people which helps them be closer to the goal or ideal state for Confucius which is a state with social harmony.
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