What characterized the period in which Confucius lived and responded?

Confucius lived during a period which the German philosopher Karl Jaspers has called the "Axial Age," the period between 800-200 BCE which Jaspers said turned on a historical axis of the year 500 BCE when the world's major religious and thought systems emerged. So basically religious things started to pop up.

Explanation:

tunami b/c it is near water