Confucius argues that learning should be open to all. There are to be no social or economic barriers: “In instruction there are to be no distinctions of status” (15.39). Of his own teaching he remarks: “Never have I refused instruction to one who of his own accord comes to me, though it be with as little as a bundle of dried meat.” It is the Master’s conviction that any person possessed of a genuine eagerness to learn, regardless of status, can hope to improve morally, even to attain “superior man” status.
