Ethics do not operate in a vacuum—ritual propriety and value ethics give us a more secure grounding for ethics.

As this passage makes clear, actions that are useful and profitable, those that have good consequences, are not necessarily what should be done. They are, Xunzi tells us, a part of the Way, but only one part, and other elements exist. It is only when these elements are put together that actions are correct. 34 Such an understanding is also made eminently clear in a passage from chapter 1, where Xunzi says, [17] The gentleman understands that those things that are not perfect and not pure are not worthy of being praised. Therefore, he recites repeatedly [his learning] in order to thread it together, ponders it in order to comprehend it, takes his person to dwell in it, and gets rid of that which is harmful to it in order to support and nourish it. He causes his eyes to not want to see what is not correct, his mouth to not desire to say what is not correct, and his heart to not want to consider what is not correct. He arrives at the point where he loves it, and then his eyes love it more than the five colors, his ears love it more than the five sounds, his mouth loves it more than the five flavors, and his heart takes it to be more profitable than possessing all under Heaven. Because of this, power and profit cannot sway him, the collected (qun) masses cannot move him, and nothing under Heaven can shift him. He lives by this, and dies by this, and this is called grasping virtue. (HKCS 1/4/16–20; H 8.217–31) The learning that Xunzi refers to in this passage is the teachings of the sages, and in particular the rituals and yi . These values, which seem to have begun as external, instrumental values in the minds of both the sages and the common people, become ends in themselves, values that can be loved to a greater extent than one cares for beautiful sights, sounds, and tastes. Indeed, Xunzi seems to think that just as we can recognize that meat and fine rice have better flavors than vegetables and rice dregs, so too can we recognize that the Way of the former kings, the Way that Xunzi is advocating, which takes the ordering influences of benevolence ( ren ӱ) and yi and the manner in which these allow for community , mutual support, mutual adornment, and mutual security as central, really is better than competing ways of life (HKCS 4/15/17–21; H 28.214–28). Of course, this is not to say that humans will immediately recognize that Xunzi’s Way has such value, any more than someone who has never had the opportunity to eat meat or good rice will realize their value in comparison to vegetables and rice dregs. However, Xunzi believes that in much the same way that one who has the opportunity to taste meat and good rice will come to prefer them to vegetables and rice dregs, so too, if one begins to study Xunzi’s Way, one will find it worthy of further study, and once one commits to its study , one will realize its value to a distinctly human life and come to live one’s life in a virtuous manner (HKCS 4/16/15–16; H 30.284–93).