LAO-TZU, or LAO-TSE. See LAOU-TSZE, ante.
a celebrated philosopher of China, the founder of a religion as ancient and important as that of Confucius (q.v.). This sect is commonly known as the lace, or sect of reason. His family name was Le, or Plum, and his youthful name Urh, or Ear—given him on account of the size of his ears. His name of honor was his surname (" old child"), or (" old prince"), by which he is generally known. Little authentic is known of the life of Laou-tsze, his followers having subsequently made a myth of his biography. He was born in the third year of the emperor Ting-wang., of the Chow dynasty (604 n.c.), in the state of Tseu, at present known as Hoo-pih and Hoo-nan, 54 years before Confucius. His father, according to the legends of the Taou sect, was 70 years before he married, and his mother 40 year of age when she conceived him. He was the incarnation of a- shooting-star, a kind god on earth, and was 80 years in his mother's womb. More trustworthy is the state ment that he was a historian and archivist of a king of the Chow dynasty, who levee books, studied rites and history, and went, about 600 A.D., to the Western parts of China, where he might have become acquainted with the worship of Fuh or Buddha. Confu cius was so attracted by his renown that he went to see him, but the meeting does DCV appear to have been entirely amicable, for Laou-tsze reproached the sage with pride. vanity, and ostentation, stating that sages loved obscurity and retreat, studied time ant circumstances before they spoke, and made no parade of knowledge and virtue. Con fucius, however. highly lauded Laou-tsze to his followers, and celled him a dragon soaring to the clouds of heaven, which nothing could surpass. Laou-tsze asked Confu cius if he had discovered the Thou (" path" or "reason") by which heaven acts, when ConfuNus answered that he had searched for it without success. Laou-tsze replied that the rich Sent away their friends with presents, sages theirs with good advice, and that he humbly thought himself a sage. By this he probably meant that all he could offer Confucius was the advice of seeking the Trion. He retired to Han-kwan, where the magistrates of the place received him, and there he wrote the Thou-tilt-king, or Book of Reason and Virtue. He died, or, according to other accounts. mounted to heaven on a black buffalo, in the 21st year of the reign of King-wang of the Chow dynasty, 528 B.C., having attained the age of 119 years.
The doctrines of Laou-tsze differ from those of Confucius—indeed, have a higher scope—the object of the last-named philosopher, or rather statesman, being the practi cal government of man through a code of morals; that of Laou-tsze the rendering of man immortal through the contemplation of God, the repression of the passions, and the perfect tranquillity of the soul. Hence his doctrine was, that silence and the void produced the Taou, the "Logos" or reason by which movement was produced; and from these two sprung all beings which contained in themselves the dual principle of male and female. Man was composed of two principles—the one material and the
other spiritual—from which he emanated, and to which he ought to return, by throwing off the shackles of the body, annihilating the material passions, the inclinations of the soul, and pleasures of the body. By this means, the soul was to regain its origin— become immortal. This could only be effected by the renunciation of riches, honors, and the tics of life. Up to the period of Laou-tsze, the national worship had been restricted to the or " supreme ruler" of the world, and the Teen, or " heaven." For these Laou-tsze substituted the Taou (" path" or "reason") of the cosmos, not citing, as the Confucianists, the precedents of ancient kings or sages—appealing to the abstract principle, and, in fact, preaching a religion which found an echo in the Chinese breast. The followers of his sect, however, considerably altered his doctrines. The moral. code of the Taou sect is excellent, inculcating all the great principles found in other religions —charity, benevolence, virtue, and the free-will, moral agency, and responsibility of man. But it subsequently became corrupted with strange doctrines and practices. They promulgated that they had discovered the drink of immortality, and obtained a host of partisans in the reign of Wan-te of the Han dynasty, 140 A.D.. and many of the emperors were addicted to their rites, and some poisoned kv the drink of immortal ity. Alchemy also became another pursuit of the sect; so did divination, the invocation of spirits, and the prediction of the future. The doctors of the sect, called •Teen-ne (" celestial doctors"), were supposed by these means to become ethereal, and to be caught up to heaven without passing through the intermediate state of death. Such statements, however, were ridiculed by the or sect.of Confucius. the skeptics of China, who openly derided their pretensions. Innumerable gods were also introduced into tho worship, which was assimilated to the Buddhist. Since the 2d c. A.D. the sect hes continued to spread in China, Japan, Cochin-China, •Tonquin, and amongst the Lido Chinese nations. Monasteries and nunneries belonging to them were founded and flour ished. The principal books or classics of the sect are the already cited; the collections called the or Book of Rewards and Punish ments; and the or List of the Scarlet Lentils :Cassia.
Stanislas Julien, Le Litre des Recompenses (Svo, Paris, 1838); Pauthier, La Chine (8vo, Paris, 1837, p. 114-17); Neumann, Lehrsaal des Afitlelreichs (Munich, 1856); Grossier, Description de in Chine (p. 571; Menzoires sur in Chine (x. 425; xv. 208).