Chapter XIII Amplification of “The Highest Virtue”
Confucius said: “When a ruler wishes to teach his people to love their parents, he does not go to their family every day to teach them. He teaches them by his showing reverence to all old people. In the same manner he teaches his people to show respect to their elders by doing so first; and to be loyal to their ruler by his doing duty to his superiors first.
“The Shih Ching says, ‘The behaviour of the ruler is so good that he is loved by the people as their parent.’ A ruler could not have been so loved by his people had he not possessed the highest virtue.”