For Yan, the key Confucian values are he, meaning harmony; li, propriety; and ren, benevolence.

"The Chinese word he is the essence of Confucian wisdom and has been central to the family and social life," he said. "Only a harmonious relationship between human beings can ensure that society develops in an orderly way."

Once a month, Yan and his students travel to Sandefan village in Jinan's Zhangqiu district to deliver free lectures on Confucian values. They tell stories that advocate benevolence, righteousness and courtesy, among other qualities.

He said many people come to tears when he shares stories about filial piety, the love of family.

"During the past 100 years, Confucian values have been heavily criticized. Even now, many people prefer Western concepts to traditional culture," Yan said. "What we need to do is awaken the essence. The values must come out of the ivory tower so they can reach people and guide their behavior."

Feeling of family

Prominent among China's ancient intellectuals is Laozi, the reputed founder of Taoism, who some say may have interacted with Confucius. But the respective works of the two giants are quite different. Laozi's Tao Te Ching is abstract and appeals to scholars, Peking University's Ames said. By contrast, the Analects of Confucius "is all about the everyday".

"It's all about making the ordinary extraordinary. It's all about family. It's all about ancestors. It's all about teachers and students," he said. Relationships are the key, starting with jia, or family.

"The idea of family is pervasive in the culture. It's a kind of feeling," he said.

"Another term that is really fundamental is the notion of li. Part of li is achieving propriety in your roles and relationships. It's being a good daughter. It's having a good life. It's living life elegantly, with refinement.

"This is an aspiration in life. It's paying attention to your roles and relationships with other people, with your family, with your colleagues. These ideas are fundamental to being Chinese. Without them, there's no Chinese."

Such core concepts are the wellspring of Confucianism, Ames said. With Confucius, life is a group project.

"In the Chinese world, things make each other.... If there's only one person, there are no persons, because you need other people to become human. We literally make friends. Human beings are 'human becomings'. You don't begin as an individual. Your individuality is something that you accomplish, not exclusive of relationships but by virtue of the quality of the relationships you're able to cultivate with other people. The language itself reflects this cosmology."

Aristotle, the Greek philosopher who expanded the Western concept of individualism, asked, "What is a man?"

"The ontological answer is a subject, and the essence is a soul," Ames said. "But in Chinese, the fundamental question is not what is something, but where does it come from? If you want to know a person, you don't know them by knowing their soul or by analyzing them. You know them by knowing their narrative: Where did they go to school? Who were their teachers?

"And so in Chinese, the most important question is the story. It's not what is somebody, it's whence and whither."

Yin Jianghong, 42, a journalist in Jinan, acknowledged the "very big influence" of Confucian concepts in her life.

"He not only influenced my values and behavior but my way of educating my child - sayings such as, 'A wise man won't stand beside a collapsing wall' and other concepts about how to treat people. If there were no Confucius, we wouldn't have stories to teach our children," she said.

And that is a crucial concept. For any culture to survive, its narrative must be passed down through rich channels of tradition, language and social structure. The key, Ames said, is in the concept of dao, "the idea that there is a kind of orthodox way, a center - dao tong, a center of Chinese culture that moves on from generation to generation".