Many characters in Chinese have the "sheep" radical--words meaning "beautiful," "innocuous," "righteous" and "flock" for instance--and according to etymologist Lo Lung-chih many such characters tend to be associated with moral virtues and legal concepts.
美、善、義、群幾個字都取羊字邊，依作家羅龍治的考證，中國文字從羊的大多代表道德與刑法觀念。