Then a certain man approached the newly anointed aristocrat king and said, ‘Please Your Majesty, you should know that the heavenly wheel-treasure has vanished.’ At that the king was unhappy and experienced unhappiness. But he didn’t go to the royal seer and ask about the noble duty of a wheel-turning monarch. He just governed the country according to his own ideas. So governed, the country’s people did not prosper like before, as they had when former kings proceeded in the noble duty of a wheel-turning monarch. Then the ministers and councillors, the treasurers and chief ministers, military officers, guardsmen, and professional advisers gathered and said to the king, ‘Your Majesty, when governed according to your own ideas, the country’s people do not prosper like before, as they did when former kings proceeded in the noble duty of a wheel-turning monarch. In your realm are found ministers and councillors, treasurers and chief ministers, military officers, guardsmen, and professional advisers—both ourselves and others—who remember the noble duty of a wheel-turning monarch. Please, Your Majesty, ask us about the noble duty of a wheel-turning monarch. We will answer you.’

4. On the Period of Decline