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.