People today generally have two understandings of Confucius's saying, "The one who created the figurines has no successors."

Firstly, Confucius started from the concept of "benevolence" and criticized the "unkindness" of simulated burials;

Secondly, Confucius opposed changing human sacrifices to using puppets instead of burials. In other words, he insisted on the ancient ritual of human sacrifice.

This saying of Confucius was first seen in "Mencius: King Hui of Liang": "Zhongni said: 'The first to make figurines has no descendants.' It is used because it resembles a human being." From the context, it is obvious that This sentence is interpreted from the first angle above.