Claim. In the age of justification by attendance, every act of attending — conduct, sitting, greeting — must conform to a codified heavenly protocol that surpasses every existing human standard of filial piety and law.
Elaboration. SMM treats etiquette as restoration-functional, not decorative: “Your conduct, the way you sit – everything must conform to heavenly law. Even the manner in which you greet me should be codified” (3.1. The law in the age of justification by attendance is the highest law, 66-267, 1973.5.16). The benchmark is the highest existing tradition raised one step further: “In order to indemnify fallen history, you should establish the finest set of laws among all laws, including the laws of filial duty to one’s parents. Even for a nation, you should establish laws superior to the highest existing standard” (ibid, 31-275, 1970.6.4). Specific forms — receiving with both hands so love passes from vertical to horizontal at ninety degrees, the elder walking ahead, three-year mourning surpassed by daily attendance — are not arbitrary but expressions of the same vertical-horizontal axis (ibid, 171-236, 1988.1.1). The implication: ritual precision is part of the indemnity work, not a separate Confucian appendage.