Sinologist Herrlee G. Creel believed that an important clue to the development of "wu wei" existed in the "Analects", in a saying attributed to Confucius, which reads: "The Master said, 'Was it not Shun who did nothing and yet ruled well? What did he do? He merely corrected his person ("made himself reverent" – Edward Slingerland) and took his proper position (facing south) as ruler'". The concept of a divine king whose "magic power" (virtue) "regulates everything in the land" (Creel) pervades early Chinese philosophy, particularly "in the early branches of Quietism that developed in the fourth century B.C."