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The ideal of the gentleman occupies an important position in the Confucian Analects . Many elements of this ideal appear in pre-Confucian sources as fundamental images of aristocratic excellence. This article presents several of those images as they appear in Western Chou bronze inscriptions, the Shih-ching and Shu-ching . In particular, we will study the role of model behavior and model emulation as well as images of Wen Wang, noble ancestors and their virtue, te . We shall see the application of these expressions of human excellence gradually extended beyond royalty and nobility to become components of a new definition of human worth applicable to all men.
William E. Savage (Wed,) studied this question.