"Please give examples of what makes it good, and write a response of at least eight hundred words."
Roland laughed and cracked a little joke.
Seriously? I just tossed you a compliment. Have you no shame?
Holmes shook his head with a rueful chuckle, but still answered earnestly, "In my view, although the Analects speaks of benevolence and ritual propriety throughout, its essence still lies in virtue, in governance through virtue.
"Practicing benevolence and righteousness is merely a means of implementing virtuous governance!"
He had truly read it closely, rather than using a spell to "speed-read" it.
The core of Confucius's thought was benevolence, advocating harmony within society and the state, and the perfection of personal cultivation.
Ritual propriety was one means of achieving benevolence, the ideal set of norms upheld by Confucianism.
But this was only one scholarly interpretation. To truly master its essential meaning, one had to trace it back to its roots.
Where did those roots lie?
The Dao De Jing!
What Roland saw in it was still virtue.
"Virtuous governance...
"A virtuous person is naturally benevolent, and naturally respects reason.
"But the principles of heaven and earth sometimes differ from the principles of human society."
He spoke with feeling.
Holmes deeply agreed. "At its heart, this is still a question of who has the authority to interpret it.
"With something like this, it depends on whose hands hold the authority to interpret morality."
Roland said, "Exactly. If virtuous and capable people control it, it is good, and approaches the Way of Heaven.
"If people without virtue or ability control it, it is bad, and goes against the Way of Heaven.
"That is why some people sometimes feel that the morality and conscience of the human world are pedantic, backward, useless things, incompatible with the natural law