The chapter opens with Confucius describing a lost golden age:
大道之行也，
天下为公 'when the Great Way prevailed, the world was shared by all'. In that age of
大同 the old were cared for to the end and no one needed to lock the door at night. School textbooks print the passage on its own as 《
大道之行也》, and Sun Yat-sen's favourite inscription,
天下为公, comes from it.
