Humans are between heaven and earth. So they are the third element in this dynamic: heaven humans earth a triad). Humans need to develop sincere and moral lives, so as to keep heaven and earth in balance. The good ruler has a duty to exert a positive influence for maintaining this balance. Confucius taught that government had both a moral and a political responsibility For Confucius and Mencius, heaven had a positive moral role to play in supporting good human behavior. But to Xunzi, heaven basically just supported natural laws- it was not working to improve human morality. For Xunzi, human improvement requires more human initiative.