Looking at what Seiten wrote, you can really tell how the Chinese writing system was used as an effective gatekeeper between aristocracy and the common people in the past. Even in Europe literacy wasn't in everyone's hands back in the day, but still, comparing the phonetic Latin alphabet to the Chinese characters, it's easy to see which took less effort. Even a bandit in Europe could learn to read and write if given a brief chance, but in China (and other countries using the system), if you managed to acquire the skill, which took considerable effort and time, you were set for life. In other words, Seiten is no slouch.