section_path: Doctrines/Social morality and ethics
section_name: Social morality and ethics
paragraph_text: Social morality and ethics
  
  As explained by Stephan Feuchtwang, the order coming from Heaven preserves the world, and has to be followed by humanity finding a "middle way" between yin and yang forces in each new configuration of reality. Social harmony or morality is identified as patriarchy, which is expressed in the worship of ancestors and deified progenitors in the male line, at ancestral shrines.
  
  Confucian ethical codes are described as humanistic. They may be practiced by all the members of a society. Confucian ethics is characterised by the promotion of virtues, encompassed by the Five Constants, elaborated by Confucian scholars out of the inherited tradition during the Han dynasty. The Five Constants are:
  
  These are accompanied by the classical four virtues (四字; sìzì), one of which (Yi) is also included among the Five Constants:
  
  There are many other traditionally Confucian values, such as ' honesty ' (诚; chéng), ' bravery ' (勇; yǒng), ' incorruptibility ' (廉; lián), ' kindness ', ' forgiveness ' (恕; shù), a ' sense of right and wrong ' (耻; chǐ), ' gentleness ' (温; wēn), ' kindheartenedness ' (良; liáng), ' respect ' (恭; gōng), ' frugality ' (俭; jiǎn), and 让; ràng; ' modesty ').