Limitation

The more I think of the essay of Wang Anshi (王安石), the more I realize the analogy of the awl and the horse could not stand.

It has long been a romantic idea that many hospitable nobles during the Warring States Period (戰國時期) hosted a large crowd of guests, each with mysterious and specialized capability, in order to take care all those X-men's job.

The reality of this guest system is, however, an inevitable step in the evolution of our society.

You know what, with the establishment of the noble class and a dramatic improvement in agricultural productivity (in that era, probably the result of using cows instead of man for the strenuous tasks, and a better system of water supply), the unemployment rate rose rapidly (the number of farmer needed to feed the whole country was much reduced), while the rich people has a whole lot of excessive revenue (i.e. agricultural product) to dispose with. Remember, it was the time before the gadget refrigerator was even thought of, and the systems of money and trading were in their infancy. The logical way to materialize one's wealth was, therefore, to host (alas, hire) a large crowd of subordinates and make use of their manpower to, as Adam Smith said, get all the convenience in life.

The very result of this system is, unfortunately, most of the guests are people who could not find a better way of subsistence in the country. In other words, there's usually no awl in the leather bag.

Well, you find this situation somewhat familiar ? The latest major advance in productivity along the history of mankind is the invention of computer and artificial intelligence, and the richest people in a modern society is the government ... I don't think I should say any more.

PS. The noble-and-guest system is not unique in the history of China. To say the least, England had the same thing. Have you heard of the story between Thomas Becket and Henry II of England ?