Analects 2.4 gives the autobiographical sequence: at fifteen set on learning, at thirty established, at forty free from doubts, at fifty knowing the mandate of Heaven, at sixty with an ear attuned, and at seventy able to follow what the heart desires without overstepping the bounds. That last stage is the tradition's statement of what the whole apparatus is for. It is not the removal of the norms but the point at which they have been so thoroughly internalised that inclination and obligation no longer come apart, so there is nothing left to resist. The junzi is elsewhere described as tandang tanhang, composed and at ease, in contrast to the small man who is chang qiqi, perpetually fretting — the difference being that the small man is managing appearances he has not internalised. Whether the promise is true is not testable, but it is the specific claim, and it is a more interesting one than either self-denial or spontaneity taken alone.