Lao-Tse

Such is the subject matter of the Tiio-Te-King—the operation of this method or Tao, "without striving or crying," in nature, in society and in the individual. Much that is very beautiful and practical is inculcated in connection with its working in the individual character. The writer seems to feel that he cannot say enough on the virtue of humility (chap. viii., etc.). There were three things which he prized and held fast—gentle compassion, economy and the not presuming to take precedence in the world (chap. lxvii.). His teaching rises to its highest point in chap. is the way of Tao not to act from any personal motive, to conduct affairs without feeling the trouble of them, to taste without being aware of the flavour, to account the great as small and the small as great, to recompense injury with kindness." This last and noblest characteristic of the Tao, the requiting "good for evil," is not touched on again in the treatise; but we know that it excited general attention at the time, and was the subject of conversation between Confucius and his disciples (Confucian Analects, xiv. 36).

Lao-tse was for the most part a dreamer and his conception of the Tao is mystical, comprising both "way" and "waygoer." He had a tremendous power of thought and was far ahead of his age. His metaphysics did not appeal to the omnipresent materialism and he was not practical enough to see means to combat it. Tao is an eternal abstraction, beyond the reach of mere word or defini tion, but he who is possessed of it knows its force and its beauty. It is the supreme paradox, it is all and nothing ; containing all it gives all, possesses all for ever and is not wasted or used. All things begin in Tao, exist only in Tao and end therein.

Tao and Deity.

It is quite clear that there must have been some vague connection between Tao and the sublime Intelligence, for while Lao-tse "cannot tell whose son it is" yet he admits that "it might appear to have existed before God." May not God Him self have appeared to the mystic as a crystallized production of the inner essence of Tao? Lao-tse implicitly accepts the fact of a Divine Ruler but He too lives in, through and by Tao, even as He originated therein.

Modern Tioism.

The religion of Taoism did not take shape until five centuries after the death of Lao-tse who now occupies the second place in its trinity of "the three Pure or Holy Ones." There is hardly a word in his treatise that savours either of super stition or religion. In the works of Chwang-tsze, his earliest fol lower of note, we find abundance of grotesque superstitions; but his beliefs (if indeed we can say that he had beliefs) had not become embodied in any religious institutions. When we come to the Ch'in dynasty (221-206 B.c.), we meet with a Taoism in the shape of a search for the fairy islands of the eastern sea, where the herb of immortality might be gathered. In the 1st century A.D. a magician, called Chang Tao-ling, comes before us as the chief professor and controller of this Taoism, preparing in retirement "the pill" which renewed his youth, supreme over all spirits, and destroying millions of demons by a stroke of his pencil. He left his books, talismans and charms, with his sword and seal, to his descendants, and one of them, professing to be animated by his soul, dwells on the Lung-hil mountain in Kiang-si, the acknowl edged head or pope of Taoism. But even then the system was not

yet a religion, with temples or monasteries, liturgies and forms of public worship. It borrowed all these from Buddhism, which first obtained public recognition in China between A.D. 65 and 70, though at least a couple of centuries passed before it could be said to have free course in the country.

Even still, with the form of a religion, Taoism is in reality a conglomeration of base and dangerous superstitions. Alchemy, geomancy and spiritualism have dwelt and dwell under its shadow. Each of its "three Holy Ones" has the title of Tien Tsun, "the Heavenly and Honoured," taken from Buddhism, and also of Shang Ti or God, taken from the old religion of the country. The most popular deity, however, is not one of them, but has the title of Shang Ti, "God, the Perfect King." But it would take long to tell of all its "celestial gods," "great gods," "divine rulers" and others. Modern Taoism is a system of the wildest polytheism. The science and religion of the West meet from it a most deter mined opposition. The "Venerable Philosopher" himself would not have welcomed them; but he ought not to bear the obloquy of being the founder of the Taoist religion. (See CHINA.) In recent years a superficial study of the writings of the early Tao philosophers has brought into being a cult of what may be called Taoist metaphysics and psychology, which is just as re mote from the principles of Lao-tse's original teaching as are the debased practices of the modern Taoist temple. The fact that Lao-tse and his followers did actually anticipate modern applied psychology in several of its more solid aspects, has led to much unscientific speculation as to the esoteric interpretation of the more obscure passages in Taoist writings, and to very incautious and dogmatic pronouncements on the early mystics and their teachings. For this reason the welter of books on L5,o-tse and his teaching which appeared during the first quarter of the loth century should be carefully sorted before the assertions contained in them are taken seriously. In spite of the existence of an excel lent Manchu translation of the Tao-Te-King, there still remain several passages in the text of which the original meaning is ob scure. The Manchu, easier of comprehension than the highly elliptical style of the literary Chinese of Lao-tse's time, does at best, in these passages, give a clue in the form of a paraphrase which may or may not accord with the original intention of the writer. All we can say with certainty is that the Manchu version gives the accepted meaning of the text as it was understood at that time (nearly 2,000 years after the original work had been written.

The whole of the period for several centuries before and after Lao-tse was filled with metaphysical speculation and philosophic discussion. Lao-tse marked out a new path and his unique gesture was one of strength in complete inactivity. His passivity was to be more potent than activity and in the restless age in which he was an almost voiceless prophet his mission was foredoomed to failure. (See CHINA.) (J. LE. ; A. N. J. W.)