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.