 As with previous Confucian thinkers, Xu recognizes that those who are authentically virtuous are not always successful. Indeed, he thinks that the situation in the Eastern Han is such that those with the highest positions are far from virtuous. He explains this in the standard Confucian way by explaining that the times (shi) make a difference, and that even the most virtuous scholar will not meet with fortune if encountering the wrong time. What constitutes the time (shi) is a matter of communal habits, beliefs, quality of rulership, and natural state. If one is born into a time of decay in a state, with weak and unvirtuous leadership, disasters like drought, and communal apathy, then one will likely not advance to a high state of reputation, even with the highest virtue. This is a situation that Confucians from the earliest times worried about, and we see it discussed in all of the thinkers mentioned here from the Eastern Han as well. Echoing Wang Fu, however, Xu Gan holds that if the times are such that the virtuous person cannot thrive in society, one should abandon society and focus on developing his own qualities (Makeham 1994: xii).