The moral sense comes from the 《
管子》, which likens propriety, righteousness, integrity and a sense of shame (
礼义廉耻) to four ropes holding up the state: cut one and it tilts, cut all four and it is destroyed. The Nationalist government promoted them in its New Life Movement of the 1930s, and schools in Taiwan still teach the
四维 with the
八德, the eight virtues.