89
Yot the system was such as to win for itself the general
approval of the community; though the people wallowed in ignorance,
they had a profound respect for those who achieved what to thom
was quite impossible.
As the stores of knowledge which marked off the governing
classes from the governed were only accessible to these scholars,
the ideal of Lao Tse was continuously realised, at least in one
aspect, viz- That the masses of the country should have empty
heads and full bellics.
The nature of the language was such then
as to create an aristocratic sect that was exclusivo, privileged,
and conceited, for it alone had knowledge and control of the
thoughts of those ancients by whom the country was governed.
The reverence for the father of the family was carried back-
ward to reverence for the old fathers of the race, to those philop
sophers who alone had said all there was to be said on the great
issues of lifc, and cxpressed it in language, which only the se
devoted priestly scrvants could understand.
In this way the language definitely marked off the nation
into two groups, and rendered it impossible for the governed to
rise into the ranks of the governors, once they abandoned this
difficult and specialised language which alonc led to the promised
land. The rewards and high offices were bestowed upon those who
remembered bost the abstruse doctrines, the subtle allusions and
the finely polished phrases of the sages, No honours wore avail-
able for those who were inspired with a zest for something new,
nor for those to whom the classical thought was for over a sealed
book.
The system worked excellently for the ruler, for it provided
a manderina to which looked backward rather than forward and was
conservative rather than inclined to innovation.
Great and important statesmen were nover so harmlessly
occupied as when ongagod in studying classical texts.