<p>This article examines Confucian humility with a special focus on its political dimension, which is central to early Chinese conceptions of the virtue. Unlike the Western tradition, Confucian thinkers rarely challenged the normative status of humility as a political virtue for the ruling elite, particularly for the ruler. This article argues that the core of Confucian humility as a monarchical virtue lies in the ruler’s awareness of existential limitations. Far from implying diffidence and a lowering of self-estimation, it enables a ruler to exercise political agency through a realistic assessment of self and others, while serving as a constant reminder of vulnerability, contingency, and historicity—concerns universally relevant but especially pertinent to the ruler in the supreme position. By framing humility as a defining trait of the ideal ruler rather than of subordinates, which stands in sharp contrast to passive virtues aiming to cultivate docility among the non-elite, early Confucians underscore the political leader’s responsibility to respect the tradition, uphold the foundational principle of the Way, and seriously attend to the voices of both the political elite and the common people. Confucian humility, thus understood, is an essential political virtue that constitutes the moral foundation of Confucian rulership.</p>