 The Legalists’ view of the people as covetous and selfish was not exceptional to this intellectual current: it was shared, among others, by as significant a Confucian thinker as Xunzi 荀子 (ca. 310–230 BCE) and is evident in many other texts (Sato 2013). Yet in marked distinction from Xunzi and from other Confucian thinkers, the Legalists dismissed the possibility that the elite—rulers and ministers alike—would be able to overcome their selfishness. The topic of the ruler’s quality will be discussed below; here, suffice it to focus on that of the ministers. For thinkers from the entire spectrum of Confucian thought, it was axiomatic that the government should be staffed by morally upright “noble men” who would serve out of commitment to the ruler above and the people below. For the Legalists, it was equally axiomatic that this cannot be the case. Shen Dao explains: