Yes, Just Yes.
Almost all city dwellers were employed directly or indirectly by the government through the government itself or its wealthy ministers. The farmers dwelling outside of the city are not "city dwellers".
The problem is that reading that and truly believing that are two different things, otherwise everyone who has read the bible would be a devout Christian.
Its not "reading", its being able to recite the passages on command. If all you ever did was read it you'd never get passing grade, unless you had remarkable memory. It is possible that a large number of people did not "truly believe" in everything a Confucian should, but it is almost impossible to get more than 1% of the ministers with any influence to say that they don't believe in Confucius's teachings. If this were the case, they would still be no different from any other minister because coming out with this revelation was enough to destroy the careers of not just yourself, but your entire family.
Even so, I've said its not reading the bible that would qualify them as being "Confucian", rather the simple ethic and treatment of one another. The Five Relationships, the Four Classes, the concept of Tianxia. Those are what Confucianism meant to most of the people, rendering much of the Confucian Ethical texts moot in favor of the practical approach to the concept of Li.
Anyhow, if the Chinese aren't biting (they figured they ruled the world already anyway), why not the Japanese or Koreans?
Korea is a no go with a POD after the Han Dynasty, and is nearly impossible before that unless you go back to the mists of time. Japan is a different story, in so far that if a proto-industrial revolution makes its way to Japan, because odds are it would never occur inside of it, then Japan could take it and build upon it. The problem is Japan was not always a unified entity, the few periods in which it were are looked upon with something akin to noncompetitive sinophiles, copying many concepts from China such as architecture, philosophy (including Zen Buddhism), government, etc. in the beginning, and rabid conservationism near its end. Otherwise we have Feudal eras. Oddly enough, Japan is more likely to industrialize in the feudal eras filled with wars than otherwise. The Tokugawa are troublesome, but its a myth that they stopped all industrialization, as it continued at a very slow and stagnated pace to the point where right before the Meiji Restoration that many of the provinces were almost industrial.
Oddly enough I'm more curious about an Indonesian Industrial Revolution. They never had the necessary parts or the cohesion to do so, but if its started elsewhere and spreads there, the possibilities are endless. At the very least you'll get a plausible and realistic colonization of Australia and New Zealand rather than stretching the suspension of disbelief that China would navigate through these highly profitable zones and decide inhabiting a mostly desert island is better.
Actually, the Wakou could had formed a trade network and discovered americas but that did not happen.
There's a very good reason for that. Wakou Trade, and Wakou Piracy (mostly Piracy), tends to stick around where the people are, and where the profits are. They are also bound by necessary limited supplies so that they can stuff their boats with "earnings". The highest they would have considered going was above Hokkaido for some rather miniscule and insignificant trade. The idea that they would want to travel hundreds, or even thousands, of miles through the barren, bitter, ice filled journey across the Russian Far East, through the Berring Straits, and down into Alaska and the Pacific Northwest is almost completely absurd. There's no sane drive.
When you want a dozen apples, you go to the nearby mart and purchase a dozen fresh apples. You don't walk on foot, in the winter, across the entire continent, without staying inside a hotel or anything, to buy one shriveled old apple that rots away to nothing by the time you walk all the way back. If you haven't died already or got seriously ill, you would be damn near emaciated and would vow never to go there again.