_Wang tao_ is also seen in the relation between China and her vassal states, a benevolent relationship which stood in sharp contrast, at times, though not always, to the methods later to be used by the Europeans in Asia.(79) Again, economic development on a basis of the free play of economic forces was regarded as _wang tao_ by Sun Yat-sen, even though its consequences might be adverse. _Pa tao_ appeared only when the political was employed to do violence to the economic.(80) This doctrine of good and bad aspects of economic relationships stands in distinct contrast to the Communist theory. He believed that the political was frequently employed to bring about unjust international economic relationships, and extenuated adverse economic conditions simply because they were the free result of the operations of a _laissez-faire_ economy. Economically, the interpretation of history was, according to Sun Yat-sen, to be performed through the study of consumption, and not of the means of production. In this he was indebted to Maurice William—at least in part.(81) The social interpretation of history is, however, associated not only with economic matters, but with the ancient Chinese moral system as well. Tai Chi-tao, whose work has most clearly demonstrated the relationship between Confucianism and Sunyatsenism, points out in his diagram of Sun Yat-sen’s ethical system that _humanity_ (_jên_) was to Sun Yat-sen the key to the interpretation of history. We have already seen that _jên_ is the doctrine of social consciousness, of awareness of membership in society.(82) Sun Yat-sen, according to Tai Chi-tao, regarded man’s development as a social animal, the development of his humanity, as the key to history. This would include, of course, among other things, his methods of production and of consumption. The distinction between Sun Yat-sen and the Western Marxian thinkers lies in the fact that the latter trace their philosophical genealogy back through the main currents of Western philosophy, while Sun Yat-sen derives his from Confucius. Nothing could be further from dialectical materialism than the socio-ethical interpretation that Sun Yat-sen developed from the Confucian theories.