Zizhang asked, “Can we know what things will be like ten generations from now?”
Confucius said, “The Yin Dynasty followed the ritual of the Xia Dynasty, and what they added and subtracted from that can be known. The Zhou Dynasty followed the ritual of the Yin Dynasty, and what they added and subtracted from that can be known.
“In just this Way, what follows after the Zhou Dynasty—even to a hundred generations from now—can also be known.”