From the Analects (
《论语·泰伯》): '
民可使由之，
不可使知之.'
朱熹 (Zhu Xi) read it as 'the common people can be made to follow the way, but cannot be made to understand it' - a reading later widely criticized as advocating keeping the people ignorant. A modern alternative repunctuates it as '
民可，
使由之；
不可，
使知之' - where the people understand, let them act on their own; where they do not, they must be taught - which reverses the meaning entirely.
