s and bandits there will be. 'If I
work through Non-action,' says the Sage, 'the people will transform
themselves.'"[1] Thus according to Lao Tzu, 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 Tzu's _Tao Te
Ching_, by Hermon Ould (Dakers, 1946), Ch. 57.

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

Lao Tzu 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 Tzu. He
was not thinking, however, of dictatorship; he was an individualistic
anarchist, believing that if there were no active government all men
would be happy. Then everyone could attain unity with Nature for
himself. Thus we find in Lao Tzu, and later in all other Taoists, a
scornful repudiation of all social and official obligations. An answer
that became famous was given by the Taoist Chuang Tzu (see below) when
it was proposed to confer high office in the state on him (the story may
or may not be true, but it is typical of Taoist thought): "I have
heard," he replied, "that in Ch'u there is a tortoise sacred to the
gods. It has now been dead for 3,000 years, and the king keeps it in a
shrine with silken cloths, and gives it shelter in the halls of a
temple. Which do you think that tortoise would prefer--to be dead and
have its vestigial bones so honoured, or to be still alive and dragging
its tail after it in the mud?" the officials replied: "No doubt it would
prefer to be alive and dragging its tail after it in the mud." Then
spoke Chuang Tzu: "Begone! I, too, would rather drag my tail after me in
the mud!" (Chuang Tzu 17, 10.)

The true Taoist withdraws also from his family. Typical of this is
another story, surely apocryphal, from Chuang Tzu (Ch. 3, 3). At the
death of Lao Tzu a disciple went to the family and expressed his