The type of evil against which the New Life Movement struggles is well-illustrated by Mme. Chiang's enumeration of the seven deadly sins: self-seeking, "face," cliquism, defeatism (_mei-yu fa-tzŭ_, the Chinese _nitchevo_), inaccuracy (_ch'a-pu-to_), lack of self-discipline, and evasion of responsibility.[11] In addition to these sins of social and political behavior, there are others such as filthiness, carelessness of infection, indecent or sloppy dress, bad manners, unkindness, etc. The Movement, easily understood in view of the traditional Confucian emphasis on personal conduct, seeks to reach individual behavior. The West European and North American peoples have been disciplined by technology itself: timeliness, cleanliness, regularity, have come to be a part of daily life. Any nation which seeks to shift from an agrarian to an industrial economy discovers that amiable defects become ruinous flaws: machinery cannot wait; a machine society requires a discipline of its own. The New Life Movement is attacking the points of social behavior which strike the newcomer to China most immediately and most unfavorably. [Footnote 11: Chiang, May-ling Soong, _China Shall Rise Again_, New York, 1941, p. 38 _ff._ Mme. Chiang's work also includes a full account of the enterprises of the New Life Movement and of its affiliates.] The positive virtues of the New Life Movement were formulated by the Generalissimo. Four in number, they are _li_, _i_, _lien_, and _ch'ih_. _Li_ is the fundamental Confucian virtue, and is based upon _jên_. _Jên_ being humane self-awareness, or consciousness of membership in society, _li_ is the application of this awareness to conduct; it thereby signifies proper behavior, not in the superficial sense of empty formality, but in the sense of behavior which is _human_: the full expression of man's moral and ethical stature. The traditional translation of _li_ is _rites_, _ceremonies_, or _etiquette_--terms which, because of their connotations of an empty ceremonialism, are inadequate as a rendition of the original. The Generalissimo writes of _li_: "It becomes natural law, when applied to nature; it becomes a rule, when applied to social affairs; and signifies discipline, when applied to national affairs. These three phases of one's life are all regulated by reason. Therefore, 'li' can be interpreted as regulated attitude of mind and heart."[12] Chiang thus reconciled, for his own thought, the naturalistic ethics of Confucius, wherein man and nature were parts of an inseparable ethical structure, and the pragmatism of Sun Yat-sen. [Footnote 12: Chiang K'ai-shek, _Outline of the New Life Movement_, Chungking (?), n.d. p. 8. This is the translation, by Mme. Chiang, of _Hsin Shêng-huo Yün-tung Kang-yao_, Nanking, n.d., originally published in May 1934.]