Confucianism was chosen by the chinese power-that-be because he encouraged obedience and conformity. It's the reason Chinese society stagnated with a monolithic central authority. With a more libertarian approach, there would be more trade and research and given chinese huge population and food availability, they might have made a lot of technological progress and we would have a colony on Mars by now.
So in that way confucianism was similar to christianity during the dark age in that they were used by the powerful to sedate the masses.
So in that way confucianism was similar to christianity during the dark age in that they were used by the powerful to sedate the masses.