Neighbouring districts were in sight, and
'the cocks and dogs of one could be heard in the other,' yet the people
grew old and died without ever interchanging visits. There was no
chattering about clever men, and no laudation of good men. The
intolerable sense of obligation was unknown. The deeds of humanity left
no trace, and their affairs were not made a burden for posterity by
foolish historians.

In an evil moment the Philanthropist made his appearance, and brought
with him the mischievous idea of Government. 'There is such a thing,'
says Chuang Tzu, 'as leaving mankind alone: there has never been such a
thing as governing mankind.' All modes of government are wrong. They
are unscientific, because they seek to alter the natural environment of
man; they are immoral because, by interfering with the individual, they
produce the most aggressive forms of egotism; they are ignorant, because
they try to spread education; they are self-destructive, because they
engender anarchy. 'Of old,' he tells us, 'the Yellow Emperor first
caused charity and duty to one's neighbour to interfere with the natural
goodness of the heart of man. In consequence of this, Yao and Shun wore
the hair off their legs in endeavouring to feed their people. They
disturbed their internal economy in order to find room for artificial
virtues. They exhausted their energies in framing laws, and they were
failures.' Man's heart, our philosopher goes on to say, may be 'forced
down or stirred up,' and in either case the issue is fatal. Yao made the
people too happy, so they were not satisfied. Chieh made them too
wretched, so they grew discontented. Then every one began to argue about
the best way of tinkering up society. 'It is quite clear that something
must be done,' they said to each other, and there was a general rush for
knowledge. The results were so dreadful that the Government of the day
had to bring in Coercion, and as a consequence of this 'virtuous men
sought refuge in mountain caves, while rulers of state sat trembling in
ancestral halls.' Then, when everything was in a state of perfect chaos,
the Social Reformers got up on platforms, and preached salvation from the
ills that they and their system had caused. The poor Social Reformers!
'They know not shame, nor what it is to blush,' is the verdict of Chuang
Tzuu upon them.

The economic question, also, is discussed by this almond-eyed sage at
great length, and he writes about the curse of capital as eloquently as
Mr. Hyndman. The accumulation of wealth is to him the origin of evil. It
makes the strong violent, and the weak dishonest. It creates the petty
thief, and puts him in a bamboo cage. It creates the big thief, and sets
him on a throne of white jade. It is the father of competition, and
competition is the waste, as well as the destruction, of energy. The
order of nature is rest, repetition, and peace. Weariness and war are
the results of an artificial society based upon capital; and the richer
this society gets, the more thoroughly bankrupt it really is, for it has
neither sufficient rewards for the good nor sufficient punishments for
the wicked.