Is there any man who thinks that he has never received a penny from the Emperor? Is there any man who thinks that he is not beholden to the Emperor for one tittle of help in his need? Is there any man who believes that it is of his own merit that he passes through the world, and who feels not the favours which he has received from his country? If there be such a man, great is his mistake. He is like the man in the proverb who is grateful for the light borrowed from his lamp, but is heedless of the thanks which he owes to the moon and to the sun. The favours which a man receives from his country are so vast as to be without bounds. Reflect carefully upon this. Since it is by the heavenly ancestors of the Emperor that this country was created, there is no single thing existing in the land which is not the Emperor’s. At our birth the water in which we are washed is the Emperor’s. At our death the ground in which we are buried is the Emperor’s. The rice which we eat, the clothes which we wear, the cap which we put on, the staff which supports us, are all the produce of the Emperor’s land. Again, the money which enables us to pass through life easily is coined by the will of the Emperor; so that whether we hoard our wealth or give out our coin to meet our daily wants, it is by the help of the Emperor that we are able to transact our business. Further, lest wicked men should hinder us, offices and guard-houses are established in different places. Ruffians and thieves are punished; children may be trusted to walk abroad with money, and no man will rob them; old men and women may be left to watch the house, and lawless men will not break in. You plant your fields with rice and your gardens with green things. You set out goods for sale and clothes to dry in your shops and wayside stalls, and no man comes to steal them; here is no small cause of gratitude. If perchance any evil deed should be done, no means are left untried to discover the guilty man, and the Imperial orders are issued to punish him according to his crime. If there were no such Imperial authority to exercise justice, each man would have to trust to his own strength. The weak would be slain by the strong; the old would be pushed over by the young; rice and money would be seized by force. But since this exercise of justice exists, although a single or double hedge may be easily broken through, there is no need to set guards, for there are none to force an entrance, and so we pass our lives in peace and safety.