To some extent, It's a religion, somewhat though. Confucianism, the core of eastern culture, which has a manifestation of difference for western culture, especially the western philosophy, never do or want to do something that off earthliness. I think this characteristic has been ingrained could make confusion or vague. So too might we can call Confucianism is a secular principle or ethic. Incidentally, all religions are earthliness, they serve the world, the people and the lives, so they can not skip those but just to state universal purely. This distinction is very important.