Lao TzÅ­ seems to have thought that this doctrine could be applied to the
life of the state. He assumed that an ideal life in society was possible
if everyone followed his own nature entirely and no artificial
restrictions were imposed. Thus he writes: "The more the people are
forbidden to do this and that, the poorer will they be. The more sharp
weapons the people possess, the more will darkness and bewilderment
spread through the land. The more craft and cunning men have, the more
useless and pernicious contraptions will they invent. The more laws and
edicts are imposed, the more thieves and bandits there will be. 'If I
work through Non-action,' says the Sage, 'the people will transform
themselves.'"[1] Thus according to Lao TzÅ­, who takes the existence of a
monarchy for granted, the ruler must treat his subjects as follows: "By
emptying their hearts of desire and their minds of envy, and by filling
their stomachs with what they need; by reducing their ambitions and by
strengthening their bones and sinews; by striving to keep them without
the knowledge of what is evil and without cravings. Thus are the crafty
ones given no scope for tempting interference. For it is by Non-action
that the Sage governs, and nothing is really left uncontrolled."[2]

[1] _The Way of Acceptance_: a new version of Lao Tzŭ's _Tao Tê
Ching_, by Hermon Ould (Dakers, 1946), Ch. 57.

[2] _The Way of Acceptance_, Ch. 3.

Lao TzÅ­ did not live to learn that such rule of good government would be
followed by only one sort of rulers--dictators; and as a matter of fact
the "Legalist theory" which provided the philosophic basis for
dictatorship in the third century B.C. was attributable to Lao TzÅ­. He
was not thinking, however, of dictatorship; he was an individualistic