Confucianism the dominant worldview in Imperial China placed tremendous value on social order and hierarchical relationships. It envisaged an order society with the Emperor at the top and his authority expressed through a Confucian bureaucracy administering Confucian laws. The realities of daily life contradicted this model. Periodic rebellions, banditry, human avarice and a host of other factors undermined the Confucian ideals. This paper examines a variety of primary sources to identify countercurrents to the dominant Confucian ideology in Imperial China. 8 pgs. Bibliography lists 11 sources.
