Virtuous people are sure to write fine works which will be passed on to later

generations. According to Confucianism, the moral character of a writer

determines the value of his work, virtuous people would naturally write well,

but those who wrote well might not necessarily be virtuous. Therefore, authors

should write to disseminate moral values; virtue and writings should be

consistent. However, later Confucian scholars sometimes overemphasized the

influence that ethics and the authors' moral character had on their writings to

the neglect of the characteristics and values of literary creation per se.