The Chinese mandarinate is a good illustration of many of these themes (Gerth and Mills, 1948: Chs. VIII and XVIII). China was unified for centuries by an administrative pyramid of mandarins, linking the court and the rural districts, who were required to pass examinations in a common core of knowledge. Thi centred upon literary and historical texts and was mostly concerned with develop- ing an educated gentleman with a good knowledge of ritual. Good government was mainly seen in terms of politica stability rather than social and economic progress. Despite this, some writers stress the role of the Chinese bureaucracy in regulating the drainage and waterway system of China just as the Egyptian priesthood served the pharaoh, sacrificed to the gods, and controlled the waters of the Nile through an elaborate drainage system (Wittfogel, 1957: 17-18 26-27). Whatever the usefulness of the services they performed, it clear the cohesion of the system was vastly assisted by the common origins, knowledge and attitudes of these administrators who were amongst the first who could reasonably be described as bureaucrats (see Chapter 8)