He keeps them without knowledge or desires, so that cunning men to fear to act. "Taken out of context by the Legalists, this was interpreted as a specific strategy of government, and Laozi's 5000-character text was accused of being a" tool of the ruling classes. "
常使民無知無慾，使夫智者不敢為也… …」被法家斷章取義，轉為君王南面之術，老子五千言也被冠上「為統治階級服務」的帽子。