The structure of the value system in Confucianism was studied from an indigenous perspective. The conceptual correspondence between the Confucian «basic realms» of values (Ren, Li) and the higher-order types of values that serve collective interests (Selftranscendence, Conservation) according to Schwartz (1992) was a priori established. This theoretical framework was applied to the study of the responses of the importance of values in the Chinese Value Survey (CVS- The Chinese Culture Connection, 1987) and the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS- Rokeach, 1973) in a sample of students (N=424) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Confucianism allowed us to understand the idiosyncratic meanings that some values could reflect in Hong Kong. The correspondence between the value types in Confucianism and in the Schwartz' model allowed us to use the latter as comparison criteria for the conceptual equivalence between the Chinese values of the CVS and the Western values of the RVS under emic and etic assumptions. The empirical structure found by means of SSA analysis was overall consistent with the Schwartz' model, and the meaning of values was correctly predicted (for 90% of CVS and 97.5% of RVS values) in this sample, supporting the comprehensiveness of Schwartz' model. Summing up, this analysis supports the cross-cultural validity of the Schwartz' structural model and exemplifies the complementarity of indigenous and culture-general approaches- showing how an indigenous approach may help to the cross-cultural development of etic theories based on emic concepts.