Junzi - The Gentlemen of the Dao.

500 years before Jesus, Confucius was writing about the Golden Rule.  He was dismayed by the splintering of the Zhou dynasty's grip on its kingdom and he wrestled with the root cause.  He concluded that ritual had vanished, or been perverted, along with the proper naming of things; while there should have been just one king, every petty ruler in the fragmented dynasty was pronouncing himself king and swanning around in kingly robes at kingly banquets, corrupting the natural way of things - the Dao.  What was lacking was men - more specifically, loyal, obedient, knowledgeable, disciplined gentlemen - the Junzi.  Junzi could live in poverty, were benevolent, humane, did more and spoke less, all while striving for Ren - the good feeling that comes with altruism.  Junzi also recognized that as they followed the Dao their good deeds would most likely come with unintended consequences - Yang must accompany Yin - but, like Zeno and his Stoics would formalize 200 years later, that was the way the Universe flowed, what could you do?  Despite this, said Confucius, a Junzi must treat others as he wished to be treated, cosmic paternalistic blow-back be damned; Jesus agreed. Based on the evidence presented on the news of men in orange jump-suits having their heads sliced off, the passing of a millennium brought Muhammad to conclude the exact opposite. Perhaps the enigmatic Mr. Spock will have coined this generation's fundamental truism, to be touted by banks too big to fail after a hostile take-over, their cold hearts warmed because "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few".  Ah well, that's the Dao - what can a gentleman do?