Karma

The Chinese believed in the whole idea of karma, where one's actions and the effects of these actions will effect them in their next life, or had effected them in their previous life. This is a superstition, but may people, especially religious and piety people during the old times, believed in it. Thus, many people tried to be on the best behavior they could be in, especially the poor class that wanted to be reborn into a higher rank. The rich people weren't as keen about what actions they took, for many were corrupted and did bad deeds, because they could "pay it off" to pardoners in the temples. Sometimes when a person is born with a defect, people might said the person must have did something terrible in their previous life to be punished so cruelly by karma. Everyone wants to be granted access to a good afterlife and reincarnation, and I believe due to this goal, society was a better place, since people did more good deeds.