In the Qing Dynasty, Confucian culture was not practical knowledge but merely a set of value systems to maintain social order. Schools neither taught mathematics nor natural sciences and geography; the students cultivated no logical or creative abilities. Life was filled with clever word games, euphemistic or roundabout expressions, and evidentiary interpretations based on classics and citations, which also led to an extreme proliferation of formalism. Economic management was left to fend for itself or was simply incapable of being managed; this poetic and literary style of governance persisted from ancient times into modern times. Looking back now, progress remains limited.