The Sage

The sage or holy man is the human being who stands in contact with the higher, unseen ideas and, through that contact, "awakens and develops the higher nature" of others. Wilhelm names him at the very opening of the book:

In relation to the human world, it denotes the creative action of the holy man or sage, of the ruler or leader of men, who through his power awakens and develops their higher nature.

The sage's authority is not coercion but attraction — the same resonance Confucius describes on the fifth line of THE CREATIVE: "Thus the sage arises, and all creatures follow him with their eyes." Underlying this is Wilhelm's idea that "the holy men and sages, who are in contact with those higher spheres, have access to these ideas through direct intuition," and so can give form to what is still latent. The sage is thus the source of culture and order, closely bound to The Great Man and to the disciplined self-cultivation of The Superior Man.