 Ritual (li—a different character from that for “benefit”) was important in many chapters of the Analects, but takes on an even more central role here. While people (unlike animals) have the ability to notice and pay heed to distinctions (fen), they will not do so naturally. Their desires have to be shaped through on-going ritual education in order for society to be harmonious and for people to flourish. The text explicitly links ritual with the idea of “standard (fa)”: “To reject ritual is to be without standards”, and “a man without standards is lost and guideless” (XZ ch. 2, p. 14, modified). Unlike the explicit regulations for when punishments and rewards are deserved of the Book of Lord Shang, that is, the Xunzi takes standards to come through having been taught ritual by an expert teacher—by one’s immediate teacher, by one’s ruler, and by the sage kings, who originally established the proper set of rituals. Both texts seek to exploit features of peoples’ psychologies to establish order, both in the name of benefiting the people. The central difference, which hearkens back to Analects 2:3, is that the Book of Lord Shang relies directly on people’s desire for benefit and hatred of harm, while the Xunzi relies on people’s ability to care about “distinctions” in order to transform them. Once transformed, ritual propriety and shame, rather than direct concern with benefit, will guide them.