Self-cultivation is the starting point of several steps moving outward. The next step is managing family affairs, followed by governing the state. The final step is moving to provide peace and sound governance to all under heaven. This process is a fundamental theme in Confucian moral philosophy and discourse on politics. It is a gradually expanding process beginning with the individual and emanating outward into serving and benefiting an ever-larger whole. In such a process an individual’s virtue and self-improvement are inseparable from his political aspirations.

The ancients, who wished to promote illustrious virtue under heaven, first had to rule their own states well. Wishing to govern their states well, they first had to manage their fiefdoms well. Wishing to manage their fiefdoms well, they first had to cultivate themselves. (The Book of Rites)