Yen Ying accused the Confucianists of being a class of proud a self-assertive wandering scholars who begged from country to country for food and loans and official jobs, a pack of gabbling fools dressed in special caps and special gowns who advocated expensive funeral ceremonies that might make many families bankrupt; he accused Confucius himself of being pompously dressed, devoted to the study of the details of kowtowing and curtsying and petty ceremonial forms which would take a man's whole life to master.
