 Due in part to the influence of Buddhism, Confucians in the Song-Ming period were interested in the many ways in which subtle or hard-to-detect psychological dispositions and phenomena can hamper our ability to apprehend things clearly and correctly. Some thought that most or all instances of moral failure could be credited to an inflated sense of one’s own importance or self-centeredness (si), which manifests in selfish inclinations or desires that then lead us astray (Shun 2010: 185–187). Confucians in this era thus developed and argued about various techniques meant to help us detect and undercut selfish inclinations and desires, and other techniques which (much like Buddhist meditation) help quiet the mind so that it can respond to the world with more evenhandedness and equanimity.