In China and lands influenced by Chinese culture, the Confucian commentarial tradition is the most extensive. It has been conventional in the West to regard Confucius' Analects as the primary, perhaps only source of Confucianism (Confucius lived 551–479 bc). But Confucius himself claimed to be a transmitter of an ancient moral and social tradition of the ru (scholar-gentleman-leader) that was manifested in the golden ages of previous dynasties: the Xia (roughly 2100–1700 bc), the Shang (1700–1027 bc) and, especially, the Zhou (the Western Zhou, which Confucius prized, 1027–771 bc; all of these dates are rough as the dynasties likely had overlapping polities, not discrete ones as traditionally conceived). Prominent dynastic leaders were emulated, including the perhaps legendary Yao, Shun, and Yu of the Xia dynasty and historical figures such as King Wen and the Duke of Zhou. Confucianism (read ruism), therefore, predates Confucius. In these dynasties and their dynastic rulers, the tradition affirms, the ideal was real.