 Though the nature of the interactions is sometimes described as non-causal, the contrast is most plausibly made with reference to mechanical and linear notions of causation in which the effect (like the second billiard ball hit by the first) is purely passive and inert. The interactions envisioned in Chinese thought are not necessarily incompatible with notions of causation in which the cause “works with the tendencies of the thing affected” (Perkins, 2019). This is in keeping with the paradigm of wholes being the biological and the organic. A significant example of the more dynamic and complex notion of causation is Mencius’ conception of the development of moral sprouts in human nature (mentioned in section 1 above and further discussed in section 3 below). To become virtuous is to grow one’s moral sprouts (such as a natural compassion for others’ suffering) into a mature and vigorous plant (such as the full virtue of ren or humanity) through reflecting on their importance to one’s flourishing as a person under the environmental conditions of secure material livelihood and ethical education (Mencius 1A7, 6A7, 6A14–15). Cultivation of a person’s virtue, then, is an instance of factors (in this case some external and some internal to the person) interacting with the tendencies affected. It is not writing on a blank slate nor is it discovering something that is already fully there.