It is because there is no ethically connected or concerned heaven that human beings must look to the sages and the rituals they created for moral guidance. Heaven offers no moral endowment, no moral assistance. Indeed, in Xunzi’s view, what made the sages of the past—Yao, Shun, and Yu—deserving of reverence and praise is that they alone grasped that man requires a set of ritual principles and teachings to give him moral direction.
