Confucius said of the Ji clan: “They have EIGHT teams of dancers in their court! If we tolerate this, what line is left to cross?” Note: … This is very “kids these days”: he means that’s too many dancers for someone who’s not a king, and is applying a slippery slope argument that it begins with too many dancers and ends with a long and bloody rebellion to overthrow the king. Confucius put enormous emphasis on outwardly following ritual rules (in this case, how many dancers you may keep on hand, based on your rank) to demonstrate your inner commitment to social order.

The Ji clan presumed to perform the Tai Mountain ritual. The Master pleaded with one of their advisors, Ran You: “Can’t you talk them out of this?” Ran You replied “I cannot.” The Master lamented: “For pity’s sake! If the gods of Tai Mountain tolerate this, their understanding of ritual is inferior to Lin Fang!” Note The idea here is that the Tai Mountain ritual is only for the lord acknowledged as “The Son of Heaven,” so the Ji clan have in fact slipped down that slope from eight entire dance squads. The pluck of openly complaining that gods these days don’t have as much self-respect as some random guy you know is very funny to me… (Lin Fang asked Confucius a question a few entries back.)