The Tâo Teh King — Sacred Books of China Part I, SBE Vol. 39 (trans. James Legge, 1891)

They were the two ablest debaters of their day, and fond of exposing what they deemed heresy. But it would only be

CH. Iv. INTRODUCTION. 37

a matter of useless speculation to try to account for their never having come into argumentative collision.

Khien says: ‘ Kwang had made himself well acquainted with all the literature of his time, but preferred the views of Lao-3ze, and ranked himself among his followers, so that of the more than ten myriads of characters contained in his published writings the greater part are occupied with metaphorical illustrations of L4o’s doctrines. He made “The Old Fisherman,” “The Robber Xih,” and “The Cutting open Satchels,” to satirize and expose the disciples of Confucius, and clearly exhibit the sentiments of Lao. Such names and characters as “ Wei-léi Hsii” and “ Khang-sang 3ze” are fictitious, and the pieces where they occur are not to be understood as narratives of real events }.

‘But Kwang was an admirable writer and skilful composer, and by his instances and truthful descriptions hit and exposed the Mohists and Literati. The ablest scholars of his day could not escape his satire nor reply to it, while he allowed and enjoyed himself with his sparkling, dashing style; and thus it was that the greatest men, even kings and princes, could not use him for their purposes.

‘King Wei of X“0, having heard of the ability of Kwang Kau, sent messengers with large gifts to bring him to his court, and promising also that he would make him his chief minister. A wang-3ze, however, only laughed and said to them, “ A thousand ounces of silver are a great gain to me, and to be a high noble and minister is a most honourable position. But have you not seen the victim-ox for the border sacrifice? It is carefully fed for several years, and robed with rich embroidery that it may be fit to enter the Grand Temple. When the time comes for it to do so, it would prefer to be a little pig, but it cannot get to be so. Go away quickly, and do not soil me with your presence.

1 Khang-sang 9ze is evidently the Kang-sang Ki of Xwang’s Book XXIII. Wei-léi Hsii is supposed by Sze-ma Kang of the Thang dynasty, who called himself the Lesser Sze-m4, to be the name of a Book; one, in that case, of the lost books of Awang. But as we find the ‘Hill of Wei-léi’ mentioned in Bk. XXIII as the scene of Kang-sang Ahi’s Taoistic labours and success; I suppose that Aien’s reference is to that. The names are quoted by him from memory, or might be insisted on as instances of different readings.

38 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH. Vv.

I had rather amuse and enjoy myself in the midst of a filthy ditch than be subject to the rules and restrictions in the court of a sovereign. I have determined never to take office, but prefer the enjoyment of my own free will.”’

38 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH. Vv.

I had rather amuse and enjoy myself in the midst of a filthy ditch than be subject to the rules and restrictions in the court of a sovereign. I have determined never to take office, but prefer the enjoyment of my own free will.”’

Khien concludes his account of Kwang-3ze with the above story, condensed by him, probably, from two of Kwang’s own narratives, in par. 11 of Bk. XVII, and 13 of XXXII, to the injury of them both. Paragraph 14 of XXXII brings before us one of the last scenes of K wang-3ze’s life, and we may doubt whether it should be received as from his own pencil. It is interesting in itself, however, and I introduce it here: ‘When A wang-jze was about to die, his disciples signified their wish to give him a grand burial. “TI shall have heaven and earth,” he said, “for my coffin and its shell; the sunand moon for my two round symbols of jade ; the stars and constellations for my pearls and jewels ;— will not the provisions for my interment be complete? What would you add to them?” The disciples replied, “We are afraid that the crows and kites will eat our master.” A wang-3ze rejoined, “Above, the crows and kites will eat me ; below, the mole-crickets and ants will eat me; to take from those and give to these would only show your partiality.”’

Such were among the last words of Kwang-3ze. His end was not so impressive as that of Confucius; but it was in keeping with the generat magniloquence and strong assertion of independence that marked all his course.

CHAPTER V.

ON THE TRACTATE OF ACTIONS AND THEIR
RETRIBUTIONS.

1. The contrast is great between the style of the TAo Teh King and the Books of Awang-3ze and that of the Peculi Kan Ying Phien, a translation of which is eculiar style . . . and nature of now submitted as a specimen of the Texts of the pep ing Taoism. The works of Lao and Kwang stand alone in the literature of the system. What

CH. Vv. INTRODUCTION. 39

. . and nature of now submitted as a specimen of the Texts of the pep ing Taoism. The works of Lao and Kwang stand alone in the literature of the system. What

CH. Vv. INTRODUCTION. 39

it was before Lao cannot be ascertained, and in his chapters it comes before us not as a religion, but as a subject of philosophical speculation, together with some practical applications of it insisted on by Lao himself. The brilliant pages of Kwang-3ze contain little more than his ingenious defence of his master’s speculations, and an aggregate of illustrative narratives sparkling with the charms of his composition, but in themselves for the most part unbelievable, often grotesque and absurd. This treatise, on the other hand, is more of what we understand by a sermon or popular tract. It eschews all difficult discussion, and sets forth a variety of traits of character and actions which are good, and a still greater variety of others which are bad, exhorting to the cultivation and performance of the former, and warning against the latter. It describes at the outset the machinery to secure the record of men’s doings, and the infliction of the certain retribution, and concludes with insisting on the wisdom of repentance and reformation. At the same time it does not carry its idea of retribution beyond death, but declares that if the reward or punishment is not completed in the present life, the remainder will be received by the posterity of the good-doer and of the offender.

A place is given to the treatise among the Texts of Taoism in ‘The Sacred Books of the East,’ because of its popularity in China. ‘The various editions of it, as observed by Mr. Wylie, ‘are innumerable; it has appeared from time to time in almost every conceivable size, shape, and style of execution. Many commentaries have been written upon it, and it is frequently published with a collection of several hundred anecdotes, along with pictorial illustrations, to illustrate every paragraph seriatim. It is deemed a great act of merit to aid by voluntary contribution towards the gratuitous distribution of this work!’

2. The author of the treatise is not known, but, as Mr.
Wylie also observes, it appears to have been written during

The origin of the Sung dynasty. The earliest mention of the treatise. it which I have met with is in the continua-

1 Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 179.

p. 40

Wylie also observes, it appears to have been written during

The origin of the Sung dynasty. The earliest mention of the treatise. it which I have met with is in the continua-

1 Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 179.

p. 40

tion of Ma-twan Lin’s encyclopedic work by Wang K4Ai, first published in 1586, the fourteenth year of the fourteenth emperor of the Ming dynasty. In Wang’s supplement to his predecessor’s account of Taoist works, the sixth notice is of ‘a commentary on the Thai Shang Kan Ying Phien by a Li Khang-ling,’ and immediately before it is a commentary on the short but well-known Yin Fa King by a La Tien, who lived 1042-1102. Immediately after it other works of the eleventh century are mentioned. To that same century therefore we may reasonably refer the origin of the Kan Ying Phien. As to the meaning of the title, the only difficulty is with the two commencing characters Thai Shang. Julien left The meaning of them untranslated, with the note, however, the title. that they were ‘l’abréviation de Thai Shang Lao Xiin, expression honorifique par laquelle les Téo-sze désignent LAo-3ze, le fondateur de leur secte}.’ This is the interpretation commonly given of the phrase, and it is hardly worth while to indicate any doubt of its correctness ; but if the characters were taken, as I believe they were, from the beginning of the seventeenth chapter of the Tao Teh King, I should prefer to understand them of the highest and oldest form of the Taoistic teaching”. 3. I quoted on page 13 the view of Hardwick, the Christian Advocate of Cambridge, that ‘the indefinite expression

1 See ‘Le Livre des Récompense et des Peines en Chinois et en Frangois’
(London, 1835).

? The designation of Lao-3ze as Thai Shang LAo Kiin originated probably in the Thang dynasty. It is on record that in 666 Kao 3ung, the third emperor, went to Lao-3ze’s temple at Po Au (the place of LAo’s birth, and still called by the same name, in the department of Fang-yang in An-hui), and conferred on him the title of Thai Shang Yiian Yiian Hwang Ti, ‘ The Great God, the Mysterious Originator, the Most High.’ ‘ Then,’ says Mayers, Manual, p. 113, ‘for the first time he was ranked among the gods as “‘ Great Supreme, the Emperor (or Imperial God) of the Dark First Cause.” ’ The whole entry is

3B ON BE A OAK bE 7G" %) 70 &

Later on, in 1014, we find Kan 3ung, the fourth Sung emperor, also visiting Po Kau, and in Lao’s temple, which has by this time become ‘ the Palace of Grand Purity,’ enlarging his title to Thai Shang Lao Xiin Hwun Yiian Shang Teh Hwang Ti, ‘ The Most High, the Ruler Lao, the Great God of Grand Virtue at the Chaotic Origin.’ But such titles are not easily translated.

CH. V, INTRODUCTION. 4I

Tao was adopted to denominate an abstract Cause, or

CH. V, INTRODUCTION. 4I

Tao was adopted to denominate an abstract Cause, or

Was theola the initial principle of life and order, to Taoisma religion? which worshippers were able to assign the attributes of immateriality, eternity, immensity, invisibility.” His selection of the term worshippers in this passage was unfortunate. Neither Lao nor Kwang says anything about the worship of the T4o, about priests or monks, about temples or rituals. How could they do so, seeing that TAo was not to them the name of a personal Being, nor ‘ Heaven’ a metaphorical term equivalent to the Confucian Ti, ‘Ruler, or Shang Ti, ‘Supreme Ruler.’ With this agnosticism as to God, and their belief that by a certain management and discipline of the breath life might be prolonged indefinitely, I do not see how anything of an organised religion was possible for the old Taoists.

The T4oist proclivities of the founder of the A Zin dynasty are well known. If his life had been prolonged, and the dynasty become consolidated, there might have arisen such a religion in connexion with Taoism, for we have a record that he, as head of the Empire, had eight spirits’ to which he offered sacrifices. Ain, however, soon passed away; what remained in permanency from it was only the abolition of the feudal kingdom.

4. We cannot here attempt to relate in detail the rise and growth of the Kang family in which the headship of Taoism has been hereditary since our first Christian century, with the exception of one not very long interruption.

The family of One of the earliest members of it, Aang Kang. Liang, must have been born not long after the death of Kwang-jze, for he joined the party of Lit

1 The eight spirits were :—1. The Lord of Heaven; 2. The Lord of Earth ;

• 3. The Lord of War; 4. The Lord of the Yang operation ; 5. The Lord of the Yin operation; 6. The Lord of the Moon; 7. The Lord of the Sun; and
• 8. The Lord of the Four Seasons. See Mayers’s C. R. Manual, pp. 327, 328. His authority is the sixth of Sze-ma Ahien’s monographs. Ahien seems to say that the worship of these spirits could be traced to Thai Kung, one of the principal ministers of kings Wan and W( at the rise of the Adu dynasty in the twelfth century B.C., and to whom in the list of Taoist writings in the Imperial Library of Han, no fewer than 237 phien are ascribed.

42 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH. Vv.

Pang, the founder of the dynasty of Han, in B.c. 208, and by his wisdom and bravery contributed greatly to his success over the adherents of Ain, and other contenders for the sovereignty of the empire. Abandoning then a political career, he spent the latter years of his life in a vain quest for the elixir of life.

208, and by his wisdom and bravery contributed greatly to his success over the adherents of Ain, and other contenders for the sovereignty of the empire. Abandoning then a political career, he spent the latter years of his life in a vain quest for the elixir of life.

Among Liang’s descendants in our first century was a Kang T4o-ling, who, eschewing a career in the service of the state, devoted himself to the pursuits of alchemy, and at last succeeded in compounding the grand elixir or pill, and at the age of 123 was released from the trammels of the mortal body, and entered on the enjoyment of immortality, leaving to his descendants his books, talismans and charms, his sword, mighty against spirits, and his seal. Tao-ling stands out, in Taoist accounts, as the first patriarch of the system, with the title of Thien Shih, ‘ Master or Preceptor of Heaven.’ Hsiian 3ung of the Thang dynasty in 748, confirmed the dignity and title in the family ; and in 1016 the Sung emperor Kn 3ung invested its representative with large tracts of land near the Lung-ha mountain in Kiang-hsi. The present patriarch—for I suppose the same man is still alive—made a journey from his residence not many years ago, and was interviewed by several foreigners in Shanghai. The succession is said to be perpetuated by the transmigration of the soul of Kang Taoling into some infant or youthful member of the family; whose heirship is supernaturally revealed as soon as the miracle is effected}.

This superstitious notion shows the influence of Buddhism on Taoism. It has been seen from the eighteenth of the Books of Kwang-3ze what affinities there were between

Infl ; Jaoism and the Indian system ; and there can nhuence 0:

Buddhism on be no doubt that the introduction of the latter

Taoism. into China did more than anything else to affect the development of the T4oistic system. As early as the time of Confucius there were recluses in the country, men who had withdrawn from the world, disgusted with its

1 See Mayers’s C. R. Manual, Part I, article 35.

p. 43

into China did more than anything else to affect the development of the T4oistic system. As early as the time of Confucius there were recluses in the country, men who had withdrawn from the world, disgusted with its

1 See Mayers’s C. R. Manual, Part I, article 35.

p. 43

vanities and in despair from its disorders. Lao would appear to have himself contemplated this course. When their representatives of our early centuries saw the Buddhists among them with their images, monasteries, and nunneries, their ritual and discipline, they proceeded to organise themselves after a similar fashion. They built monasteries and nunneries, framed images, composed liturgies, and adopted a peculiar mode of tying up their hair. The ‘Three Precious Ones’ of Buddhism, emblematic to the initiated of Intelligence personified in Buddha, the Law, and the Community or Church, but to the mass of the worshippers merely three great idols, styled by them Buddha Past, Present, and To Come: these appeared in Taoism as the ‘Three Pure Ones,’ also represented by three great images, each of which receives the title of ‘His Celestial Eminence,’ and is styled the ‘Most High God (Shang Ti). The first of them is a deification of Chaos, the second, of Lao-jze, and the third of I know not whom or what; perhaps of the Tao.

But those Three Pure Ones have been very much cast into the shade, as the objects of popular worship and veneration, by Yi Hwang Ti or Yii Hwang Shang Ti. This personage appears to have been a member of the Kang clan, held to be a magician and venerated from the time of the Thang dynasty, but deified in 1116 by the Sung emperor Hui 3ung at the instigation of a charlatan Lin Ling-si, a renegade Buddhist monk. He is the god in the court of heaven to whom the spirits of the body and of the hearth in our treatise proceed at stated times to report for approval or condemnation the conduct of men.

Since the first publication of the Kan Ying Phien, the tenets of Buddhism have been still further adopted by the teachers of T4oism, and shaped to suit the nature of their own system. I have observed that the idca of retribution in our treatise does not go beyond the present life; but the manifestoes of Taoism of more recent times are much occupied with descriptions of the courts of purgatory and threatenings of the everlasting misery of hell to those whom their sufferings in those courts

p. 44

"CHL.

fail to wean from their wickedness. Those manifestoes are published by the mercy of Yii Hwang Shang Ti that men and women may be led to repent of their faults and make atonement for their crimes. They emanate from the temples of the tutelary deities! which are found throughout the empire, and especially in the walled cities, and are under the charge of Taoist monks. A visitor to one of the larger of these temples may not only see the pictures of the purgatorial courts and other forms of the modern superstitions, but he will find also astrologers, diviners, geomancers, physiognomists, et id genus omne, plying their trades or waiting to be asked to do so, and he will wonder how it has been possible to affiliate such things with the teachings of Lao-;ze.

Other manifestoes of a milder form, and more like our tractate, are also continually being issued as from one or other of what are called the state gods, whose temples are all in the charge of the same monks. In the approximation which has thus been going on of Taoism to Buddhism, the requirement of celibacy was long resisted by the professors of the former; but recent editions of the Penal Code? contain sundry regulations framed to enforce celibacy, to bind the monks and nuns of both systems to the observance of the Confucian maxims concerning filial piety, and the sacrificial worship of the dead ; and also to restrict the multiplication of monasteries and nunneries. Neither Lao nor A wang was a celibate or recommended celibacy. The present patriarch, as a married man, would seem to be able still to resist the law.

1 Called KAing Hwang Mido, ‘ Wall and Moat Temples,’ Palladia of the city.

2 See Dr. Eitel’s third edition of his ‘Three Lectures on Buddhism,’ pp.
36-45 (Hongkong: Lane, Crawford & Co., 1884). The edition of the Penal
Code to which he refers is of 1879.

THE TAO TEH XING,

OR

THE TAO
AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS.

a

THE
WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE.

INTRODUCTION.
Brier NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT Books.
Book I. HsiAo-vAo Yo.

36-45 (Hongkong: Lane, Crawford & Co., 1884). The edition of the Penal
Code to which he refers is of 1879.

THE TAO TEH XING,

OR

THE TAO
AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS.

a

THE
WRITINGS OF KWANG-3ZE.

INTRODUCTION.
Brier NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT Books.
Book I. HsiAo-vAo Yo.

The three characters which form the title of this Book have all of them the ideagram 7. (Ko), which: gives the idea, as the Shwo W4n explains it, of ‘now walking, now halting. We might render the title by ‘Sauntering or Rambling at Ease;’ but it is the untroubled enjoyment of the mind which the author has in view. And this enjoyment is secured by the Tao, though that character does not once occur in the Book. Awang-jze illustrates his thesis first by the cases of creatures, the largest and the smallest, showing that however different they may be in size, they should not pass judgment on one another, but may equally find their happiness in the Tao. From this he advances to men, and from the cases of Yung-jze and Lieh-jze proceeds to that of one who finds his enjoyment in himself, independent of every other being or instrumentality; and we have the three important definitions of the accomplished Taoist, as ‘the Perfect Man,’ ‘the Spirit-like Man,’ and ‘the Sagely Man.’ Those definitions are then illustrated ;—the third in Yao and Hsii Yd, and the second in the conversation between Kien Wd and Lien Sha. The description given in this conversation of the spiritlike man is very startling, and contains statements that are true only of Him who is a ‘ Spirit,’ ‘the Blessed and only Potentate,’ ‘Who covereth Himself with light as with a garment, Who stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain,

=n = eee eee a em ee ae

p. 128

Who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters, Who maketh the clouds His chariot, Who walketh on the wings of the wind,’ ‘Who rideth on a cherub,’ ‘Who inhabiteth eternity. The most imaginative and metaphorical expressions in the T4o Teh Xing about the power of the possessor of the T4o are tame, compared with the language of our author. I call attention to it here,as he often uses the same extravagant style. There follows an illustration of ‘the Perfect Man, which is comparatively feeble, and part of it, so far as I can see, inappropriate, though Lin Hsi-Zung says that all other interpretations of the sentences are ridiculous.

In the seventh and last paragraph we have two illustrations that nothing is really useless, if only used Téoistically.; ‘to the same effect, says 3i40 Hung, ‘as Confucius in the Analects, XVII, ii.’ They hang loosely, however, from what precedes.

An old view of the Book was that Kwang-3ze intended
himself by the great phang, ‘which,’ says LO Shd-Aih,
‘is wide of the mark.’

Book II. Kat WO Lun.

An old view of the Book was that Kwang-3ze intended
himself by the great phang, ‘which,’ says LO Shd-Aih,
‘is wide of the mark.’

Book II. Kat WO Lun.

Mr. Balfour has translated this title by ‘Essay on the Uniformity of All Things;’ and, the subject of the Book being thus misconceived, his translation of it could not fail to be very incorrect. The Chinese critics, I may say without exception, construe the title as I have done. The second and third characters, Wi Lun, are taken together, and mean ‘Discussions about Things,’ equivalent to our ‘Controversies.’ They are under the government of the first character K/i, used as a verb, with the signification of ‘Harmonising,’ or ‘Adjusting. Let me illustrate this by condensing a passage from the ‘Supplementary Commentary of a Mr. Kang, a sub-secretary of the Imperial

Chancery,’ of the Ming dynasty (ie cs + ie at). He says, ‘ What Xwang-jze calls “Discussions about Things ” has reference to the various branches of the numerous schools, each of which has its own views, conflicting withp. 129 the views of the others.’ He goes on to show that if they would only adopt the method pointed out by A wang-3ze, ‘their controversies would be adjusted (iy Fl He), now using the first X/i in the passive voice.

This then was the theme of our author in this Book. It must be left for the reader to discover from the translation how he pursues it. I pointed out a peculiarity in the former Book, that though the idea of the T4o underlies it all, the term itself is never allowed to appear. Not only does the same idea underlie this Book, but the name is frequently employed. The T4o is the panacea for the evils of controversy, the solvent through the use of which the different views of men may be made to disappear.

That the T4o is not a Personal name in the conception of Kwang-jze is seen in several passages. We have not to go beyond the phenomena of nature to discover the reason of their being what they are; nor have we to go beyond the bigoted egoism and vaingloriousness of controversialists to find the explanation of their discussions, various as these are, and confounding like the sounds of the wind among the trees of a forest. To man, neither in nature nor in the sphere of knowledge, is there any other ‘Heaven’ but what belongs to his own mind. That is his only ‘ True Ruler. If there be any other, we do not see His form, nor any traces of His acting. Things come about in their proper course. We cannot advance any proof of Creation. Whether we assume that there was something ‘in the beginning’ or nothing, we are equally landed in contradiction and absurdity. Let us stop at the limit of what we know, and not try to advance a step beyond it.

Things come about in their proper course. We cannot advance any proof of Creation. Whether we assume that there was something ‘in the beginning’ or nothing, we are equally landed in contradiction and absurdity. Let us stop at the limit of what we know, and not try to advance a step beyond it.

Towards the end of the Book our author’s agnosticism seems to reach its farthest point. All human experience is spoken of as a dream or as ‘illusion.’ He who calls another a dreamer does not know that he is not dreaming himself. One and another commentator discover in such utterances something very like the Buddhist doctrine that all life is but so much illusion (FR). This notion has its consummation in the story with which the Book concludes.

[39] K

p. 130

Kwang-jze had dreamt that he was a butterfly. When he awoke, and was himself again, he did not know whether he, Kwang KAu, had been dreaming that he was a butterfly, or was now a butterfly dreaming that it was Kwang Kau. And yet he adds that there must be a difference between Kau and a butterfly, but he does not say what that difference is. But had he ever dreamt that he was a butterfly, so as to lose the consciousness of his personal identity as Kwang Kau? TI do not think so. One may, perhaps, lose that consciousness in the state of insanity ; but the language of Young is not sufficiently guarded when he writes of

‘Dreams, where thought, in fancy’s maze, runs mad.’

When dreaming, our thoughts are not conditioned by the categories of time and space; but the conviction of our identity is never lost.

Book III. YANG SHANG Xb.

‘The Lord of Life’ is the Tao. It is to this that we are indebted for the origin of life and for the preservation of it. Though not a Personal Being, it is here spoken of as if it were,—‘the Lord of Life;’ just as in the preceding Book it is made to appear as ‘a True Governor, and ‘a True Ruler.” But how can we nourish the Tao? The reply is, By avoiding all striving to do so; bya passionless, unstraining performance of what we have to do in our position in life; simply allowing the Tao to guide and nourish us, without doing anything to please ourselves or to counteract the tendency of our being to decay and death.

Par. 1 exhibits the injury arising from not thus nourishing the life, and sets forth the rule we are to pursue.

Par. 2 illustrates the observance of the rule by the perfect skill with which the cook of the ruler Wan-hui of Wei cut up the oxen for his employer without trouble to himself, or injury to his knife.

BK.IV. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. I31

Par. 3 illustrates the result of a neglect of one of the cautions in par. I to a certain master of the Left, who had brought on himself dismemberment in the loss of one of his feet.

BK.IV. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. I31

Par. 3 illustrates the result of a neglect of one of the cautions in par. I to a certain master of the Left, who had brought on himself dismemberment in the loss of one of his feet.

Par. 4 shows how even Lao-3ze had failed in nourishing ‘the Lord of Life’ by neglecting the other caution, and allowing in his good-doing an admixture of human feeling, which produced in his disciples a regard for him that was inconsistent with the nature of the TAo, and made them wail for him excessively on his death. This is the most remarkable portion of the Book, and it is followed by a sentence which implies that the existence of man’s spirit continues after death has taken place. His body is intended by the ‘faggots’ that are consumed by the fire. That fire represents the spirit which may be transferred elsewhere.

Some commentators dwell on the analogy between this and the Buddhistic transrotation of births; which latter teaching, however, they do not seem to understand. Others say that ‘the nourishment of the Lord of Life’ is simply acting as Yii did when he conveyed away the flooded waters ‘by doing that which gave him no trouble ;’—see Mencius, IV, ii, 26.

_ In Kwang-jze there are various other stories of the same character as that about king Wan-hui’s cook,—e. g. XIX, 3 and XXII, 9. They are instances of the dexterity acquired by habit, and should hardly be pressed into the service of the doctrine of the T do.

Book IV. ZAN XIEN SHIH.

A man has his place among other men in the world ; he is a member, while he lives, of the body of humanity. And as he has his place in society, so also he has his special duties to discharge, according to his position, and his relation to others. Tdaoist writers refer to this Book as a proof of the practical character of the writings of Kwang-jze.

K 2

o-—- +2

p. 132

They are right to a certain extent in doing so; but the cases of relationship which are exhibited and prescribed for are of so peculiar a character, that the Book is of little value as a directory of human conduct and duty. In the first two paragraphs we have the case of Yen Hui, who wishes to go to Wei, and try to reform the character and government of its oppressive ruler; in the third and fourth, that of the duke of Sheh, who has been entrusted by the king of KAO with a difficult mission to the court of K4%i, which is occasioning him much anxiety and apprehension ; and in the fifth, that of a Yen Ho, who is about to undertake the office of teacher to the son of duke Ling of Wei, a young man with a very bad natural disposition. The other four paragraphs do not seem to come in naturally after these three cases, being occupied with two immense and wonderful trees, the case of a poor deformed cripple, and the lecture for the benefit of Confucius by ‘ the madman of Kd.’ In all these last paragraphs, the theme is the usefulness, to the party himself at least, of being of no use.

Confucius is the principal speaker in the first four paragraphs. In what he says to Yen Hui and the duke of Sheh there is much that is shrewd and good; but we prefer the practical style of his teachings, as related by his own disciples in the Confucian Analects. Possibly, it was the object of Kwang-3ze to exhibit his teaching, as containing, without his being aware of it, much of the mystical character of the Tdoistic system. His conversation with the duke of Sheh, however, is less obnoxious to this charge than what he is made to say to Yen Hui. The adviser of Yen Ho is a Kii Po-yii, a disciple of Confucius, who still has a place in the sage’s temples.

In the conclusion, the Taoism of our author comes out in contrast with the methods of Confucius. His object in the whole treatise, perhaps, was to show how ‘the doing nothing, and yet thereby doing everything,’ was the method to be pursued in all the intercourses of society.

p. 133

Book V. TrEH KXa#uNG FO.

The fa (4) consisted in the earliest times of two slips of bamboo made with certain marks, so as to fit to each other exactly, and held by the two parties to any agreement or covenant. By the production and comparison of the slips, the parties verified their mutual relation ; and the claim of the one and the obligation of the other were sufficiently established. ‘Seal’ seems the best translation of the character in this title.

By ‘virtue’ ( $id) we must understand the characteristics of the Tao. Where those existed in their full proportions in any individual, there was sure to be the evidence or proof of them in the influence which he exerted in all his intercourse with other men; and the illustration of this is the subject of this Book, in all its five paragraphs. That influence is the ‘Seal’ set on him, proving him to be a true child of the T4o.

The heroes, as I may call them, of the first three paragraphs are all men who had lost their feet, having been reduced to that condition as a punishment, just or unjust, of certain offences; and those of the last two are distinguished by their extraordinary ugliness or disgusting deformity. But neither the loss of their feet nor their deformities trouble the serenity of their own minds, or interfere with the effects of their teaching and character upon others; so superior is their virtue to the deficiencies in their outward appearance.

Various brief descriptions of the T4o are interspersed in the Book. The most remarkable of them are those in par. 1, where it appears as ‘that in which there is no element of falsehood,’ and as ‘the author of all the Changes or Transformations’ in the world. The sentences where these occur are thus translated by Mr. Balfour :—‘ He seeks to know Him in whom is nothing false. He would not be affected by the instability of creation; even if his life were involved in the general destruction, he would yet hold firmly to his faith (in God). And he observes in a

Balfour :—‘ He seeks to know Him in whom is nothing false. He would not be affected by the instability of creation; even if his life were involved in the general destruction, he would yet hold firmly to his faith (in God). And he observes in ap. 134 note, that the first short sentence ‘is explained by the commentators as referring to Kan 3éi (ie a), the term used by the Taoist school for God.’ But we met with that name and synonyms of it in Book II, par. 2, as appellations of the TAo, coupled with the denial of its personality. Kan 34i, ‘the True Governor or Lord, may be used as a designation for god or God, but the Taoist school denies the existence of a Personal Being, to whom we are accustomed to apply that name.

Hui-jze, the sophist and friend of Awang-3ze, is introduced in the conclusion as disputing with him the propriety of his representing the Master of the Téo as being still ‘a man;’ and is beaten down by him with a repetition of his assertions, and a reference to some of Hui-3ze’s well-known peculiarities. What would AKwang-jze have said, if his opponent had affirmed that his instances were all imaginary, and that no man had ever appeared who could appeal to his possession of such a ‘seal’ to his virtues and influence as he described ?

Lai Fang-wang compares with the tenor of this Book what we find in Mencius, VII, i, 21, about the nature of the superior man. The analogy between them, however, is very faint and incomplete.

Book VI. TA 3uNG SHIH.

So I translate the title of this Book, taking 3ung asa verb, and 3ung Shih as =‘ The Master who is Honoured.’ Some critics take 3ung in the sense of ‘Originator, in which it is employed in the Tao Teh King, Ixx, 2. Whichever rendering be adopted, there is no doubt that the title is intended to be a designation of the T4o; and no one of our author’s Books is more important for the understanding of his system of thought.

The key to it is found in the first of its fifteen paragraphs, There are in man two elements ;—the Heavenly or Taoistic, and the human. The disciple of the Tao, recognising them both, cultivates what he knows as a man

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The key to it is found in the first of its fifteen paragraphs, There are in man two elements ;—the Heavenly or Taoistic, and the human. The disciple of the Tao, recognising them both, cultivates what he knows as a manp. 135 so as to become entirely conformed to the action of the Tao, and submissive in all the most painful experiences in his lot, which is entirely ordered by it. A seal will be set on the wisdom of this course hereafter, when he has completed the period of his existence on earth, and returns to the state of non-existence, from which the Tao called him to be born as a man. In the meantime he may attain to be the True man possessing the True knowledge. Our author then proceeds to give his readers in five paragraphs his idea of the True Man. Mr. Balfour says that this name is to be understood ‘in the esoteric sense, the partaking of the essence of divinity,’ and he translates it by ‘the Divine Man. But we have no right to introduce here the terms ‘divine’ and ‘divinity.’ Nan-hwéi (VII, 5b) gives a short definition of the name which is more to the point :—‘ What we call “the True Man” is one whose nature is in agreement with the Tao (Ar a8 1

A 4 Pp: & a F 8 th;’ and the commentator adds ina note, ‘Such men as Fi-hsi, Hwang-Ti, and Lao Tan.’ The Khang- hsi dictionary commences its account of the character i or ‘True’ by a definition of the True Man taken from the Shwo W4n as a fily KS a recluse of the mountain, whose bodily form has been changed, and who ascends to heaven ;’ but when that earliest dictionary was made, Taoism had entered into a new phase, different from what it had in the time of our author. The most prominent characteristic of the True Man is that he is free from all exercise of thought and purpose, a being entirely passive in the hands ofthe T4o. In par. 3 seven men are mentioned, good and worthy men, but inferior to the True.

Having said what he had to say of the True Man, Kwang-3ze comes in the seventh paragraph to speak directly of the T Ao itself, and describes it with many wonderful predicates which exalt it above our idea of God ;—a concept and not a personality. He concludes by mentioning a number of ancient personages who had got the T4o, and by it wrought wonders, beginning with a Shih-wei, who preceded Fi-hsi, and ending with Fa Yiieh, the minister of

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Wi-ting, in the fourteenth century B.C.,and who finally became a star in the eastern portion of the zodiac. Phang 30 is also mentioned as living, through his possession of the Tao, from the twenty-third century B.C. to the seventh or later. The sun and moon and the constellation of the Great Bear are also mentioned as its possessors, and the fabulous Being called the Mother of the Western King. The whole passage is perplexing to the reader to the last degree.

to the seventh or later. The sun and moon and the constellation of the Great Bear are also mentioned as its possessors, and the fabulous Being called the Mother of the Western King. The whole passage is perplexing to the reader to the last degree.

The remaining paragraphs are mostly occupied with instances of learning the To, and of its effects in making men superior to the infirmities of age and the most terrible deformities of person and calamities of penury; as ‘Tranquillity’ under all that might seem most calculated to disturb it. Very strange is the attempt at the conclusion of par. 8 apparently to trace the genesis of the knowledge of the TAo. Confucius is introduced repeatedly as the expounder of Taoism, and made to praise it as the ne plus ultra of human attainment.

Book VII. Yinc Ti WANG.

The first of the three characters in this title renders the translation of it somewhat perplexing. Ying has different meanings according as it is read in the first tone or in the third. In the first tone it is the symbol of what is right, or should be; in the third tone of answering or responding to. I prefer to take it here in the first tone. As Kwo Hsiang says, ‘One who is free from mind or purpose of his own, and loves men to become transformed of themselves, is fit to be a Ruler or a King,’ and as 3hui Awan, another early commentator, says, ‘ He whose teaching is that which is without words, and makes men in the world act as if they were oxen or horses, is fit to be a Ruler or a King.’ This then is the object of the Book—to describe that government which exhibits the T4o equally in the rulers and the ruled, the world of men all happy and good without purpose or effort.

It consists of seven paragraphs. The first shows us the model ruler in him of the line of Thai, whom I have notp. 137 succeeded in identifying. The second shows us men under such a rule, uncontrolled and safe like the bird that flies high beyond the reach of the archer, and the mouse secure in its deep hole from its pursuers. The teacher in this portion is KAieh-yii, known in the Confucian school as ‘ the madman of XA,’ and he delivers his lesson in opposition to the heresy of a Z4h-#ung Shih, or ‘Noon Beginning,’ In the third paragraph the speakers are ‘a nameless man, and a Thien K&n, or ‘ Heaven Root.’ In the fourth paragraph Ldo-jze himself appears upon the stage, and lectures a Yang 3ze-fii, the Yang Kf) of Mencius. Heconcludes by saying that ‘where the intelligent kings took their stand could not be fathomed, and they found their enjoyment in (the realm of) noncntity.’

Heconcludes by saying that ‘where the intelligent kings took their stand could not be fathomed, and they found their enjoyment in (the realm of) noncntity.’

The fifth paragraph is longer, and tells us of the defeat of a wizard, a physiognomist in Kang, by Hf-3ze, the master of the philosopher Lieh-3ze, who is thereby delivered from the glamour which the cheat was throwing round him. I confess to not being able to understand the various processes by which Hf-jze foils the wizard and makes him run away. The whole story is told, and at greater length, in the second book of the collection ascribed to Lieh-3ze, and the curious student may like to look at the translation of that work by Mr. Ernst Faber (Der Naturalismus bei den alten Chinesen sowohl nach der Seite des Pantheismus als des Sensualismus, oder die Sammtlichen Werke des Philosophen Licius, 1877). The effect of the wizard’s defeat on Lieh-jze was great. He returned in great humility to his house, and did not go out of it for three years. He did the cooking for his wife, and fed the pigs as if he were feeding men. He returned to pure simplicity, and therein continued to the end of his life. But I do not see the connexion between this narrative and the government of the Rulers and Kings.

The sixth paragraph is a homily by our author himself on ‘non-action.’ It contains a good simile, comparing the mind of the perfect man to a mirror, which reflects faithfully what comes before it, but does not retain any image of it, when the mind is gone.

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The last paragraph is an ingenious and interesting allegory relating how the gods of the southern and northern seas brought Chaos to an end by boring holes in him. Thereby they destroyed the primal simplicity, and according to Taoism did Chaos an injury! On the whole I do not think that this Book, with which the more finished essays of Kwang-jze come to an end, is so successful as those that precede it.

Book VIII. PHIEN MAv.

This Book brings us to the Second Part of the writings of our author, embracing in all fifteen Books. Of the most important difference between the Books of the First and the other Parts some account has been given in the Introductory Chapter. We have here to do only with the different character of their titles. Those of the seven preceding Books are so many theses, and are believed to have been prefixed to them by Awang-3ze himself; those of this Book and the others that follow are believed to have been prefixed by Kwo Hsiang, and consist of two or three characters taken from the beginning, or near the beginning of the several Books, after the fashion of the names of the Books in the Confucian Analects, in the works of Mencius, and in our Hebrew Scriptures. Books VIII to XIII are considered to be supplementary to VII by Ad-yang Hsia.

Books VIII to XIII are considered to be supplementary to VII by Ad-yang Hsia.

The title of this eighth Book, Phien M4u, has been rendered by Mr. Balfour, after Dr. Williams, ‘ Double Thumbs.’ But the M4u, which may mean either the Thumb or the Great Toe, must be taken in the latter sense, being distinguished in this paragraph and elsewhere from Xih, ‘a finger,’ and expressly specified also as belonging to the foot. The character phien, as used here, is defined in the Khang-hsi dictionary as ‘anything additional growing out as an appendage or excrescence, a growing out at the side.’ This would seem to justify the translation of it by ‘double.’ But in paragraph 3, while the extra finger increases the number of the fingers, this growth on the foot is represented as diminishing the number of the toes. I must considerp. 139 the phien therefore as descriptive of an appendage by which the great toe was united to one or all of the other toes, and can think of no better rendering of the title than what I have given. It is told in the 30 A wan (twenty-third year of duke Hsi) that the famous duke W4n of 3in had phien hsieh, that is, that his ribs presented the appearance of forming one bone. So much for the title.

The subject-matter of the Book seems strange to us ;— that, according to the Tao, benevolence and righteousness are not natural growths of humanity, but excrescences on it, like the extra finger on the hand, and the membranous web of the toes. The weakness of the TAoistic system begins to appear. A wang-jze’s arguments in support of his position must be pronounced very feeble. The ancient Shun is introduced as the first who called in the two great virtues to distort and vex the world, keeping society for more than a thousand years in a state of uneasy excitement. Of course he assumes that prior to Shun, he does not say for how long a time (and in other places he makes decay to have begun earlier), the world had been in a state of paradisiacal innocence and simplicity, under the guidance of the T 40, untroubled by any consideration of what was right and what was wrong, men passively allowing their nature to have its quiet development, and happy in that condition. All culture of art or music is wrong, and so it is wrong and injurious to be striving to manifest benevolence and to maintain righteousness.

He especially singles out two men, one of the twelfth century B.C., the famous Po-i, who died of hunger rather than acknowledge the dynasty of Kau; and one of a more recent age, the robber Shih, a great leader of brigands, who brought himself by his deeds to an untimely end; and he sees nothing to choose between them. We must give our judgment for the teaching of Confucianism in preference to that of Taoism, if our author can be regarded as a fair expositor of the latter. He is ingenious in his statements and illustrations, but he was, like his master L4o-3ze, only a dreamer.

We must give our judgment for the teaching of Confucianism in preference to that of Taoism, if our author can be regarded as a fair expositor of the latter. He is ingenious in his statements and illustrations, but he was, like his master L4o-3ze, only a dreamer.

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Book IX. MA Tuf.

‘Horses’ and ‘ Hoofs’ are the first two characters of the Text, standing there in the relation of regent and regimen. The account of the teaching of the Book given by Lin Hsikung is so concise that I will avail myself of it. He says :—

‘Governing men is like governing horses. They may be governed in such a way as shall be injurious to them, just as Po-lao governed the horse ;—contrary to its true nature. His method was not different from that of the (first) potter and carpenter in dealing with clay and wood ;—contrary to the nature of those substances. Notwithstanding this, one age after another has celebrated the skill of those parties;—not knowing what it is that constitutes the good and skilful government of men. Such government simply requires that men be made to fulfil their regular constant: nature,—the qualities which they all possess in common, with which they are constituted by Heaven, and then be left to themselves. It was this which constituted the age of perfect virtue ; but when the sages insisted on the practice of benevolence, righteousness, ceremonies, and music, then the people began to be without that perfect virtue. Not that they were in themselves different from what they had been, but those practices do not really belong to their regular nature ; they arose from their neglecting the characteristics of the T4o, and abandoning their natural constitution ;— it was the case of the skilful artisan cutting and hacking his raw materials in order to form vessels from them. There is no ground for doubting that Po-l4o’s management of horses gave them that knowledge with which they went on to play the part of thieves, or that it was the sages’ government of the people which made them devote themselves to the pursuit of gain ;—it is impossible to deny the error of those sages.

‘There is but one idea in the Book from the beginning to the end ;—it is an amplification of the expression in the preceding Book that “all men have their regular and con-

BK. X. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS. I4I

stant constitution,” and is the most easily construed of all Kwang-3ze’s compositions. In consequence, however, of the wonderful touches of his pencil in describing the sympathy between men and other creatures in their primal state, some have imagined that there is a waste and embellishment of language, and doubted whether the Book is really his own, but thought it was written by some one in imitation of his style. I apprehend that no other hand would easily have attained to such a mastery of that style.’

I apprehend that no other hand would easily have attained to such a mastery of that style.’

There is no possibility of adjudicating definitely on the suspicion of the genuineness of the Book thus expressed in Hsi-fung’s concluding remarks. The same suspicion arose in my own mind in the process of translation. My surprise continues that our author did not perceive the absurdity of his notions of the primal state of men, and of his condemnation of the sages.

Book X. KAU KAIEH.

It is observed by the commentator Kwei Kan-#hiian that one idea runs through this Book :—that the most sage and wise men have ministered to theft and robbery, and that, if there were an end of sageness and wisdom, the world would be at rest. Between it and the previous Book there is a general agreement in argument and object, but in this the author expresses himself with greater vehemence, and almost goes to excess in his denunciation of the institutions of the sages.

The reader will agree with these accounts of the Book. Kwang-jze at times becomes weak in his attempts to establish his points. To my mind the most interesting portions of this Book and the last one are the full statements which we have in them of the happy state of men when the Tao maintained its undisputed sway in the world, and the names of many of the early Tdoistic sovereigns. How can we suppose that anything would be gained by a return to the condition of primitive innocence and simplicity? The antagonism between Téoism and Confucianism comes out in this Book very decidedly.

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The title of the Book is taken from two characters in the first clause of the first paragraph.

Book XI. 3Ar Yt.

The two characters of the title are taken from the first sentence of the Text, but they express the subject of the Book more fully than the other titles in this Part do, and almost entitle it to a place in Part I. It is not easy to translate them, and Mr. Balfour renders them by ‘ Leniency towards Faults, probably construing 34i as equivalent to our preposition ‘in, which it often is. But Awang-jze uses both 34i and Yd as verbs, or blends them together, the chief force of the binomial compound being derived from the significance of the 34i. 34i is defined by 3hun ({¥), which gives the idea of ‘preserving’ or ‘keeping intact,’ and Ya by Khwan (8), ‘being indulgent’ or ‘ forbearing.’ The two characters are afterwards exchanged for other two, wo wei (ffE Fs), ‘doing nothing,’ ‘inaction, a grand characteristic of the Tao.

34i is defined by 3hun ({¥), which gives the idea of ‘preserving’ or ‘keeping intact,’ and Ya by Khwan (8), ‘being indulgent’ or ‘ forbearing.’ The two characters are afterwards exchanged for other two, wo wei (ffE Fs), ‘doing nothing,’ ‘inaction, a grand characteristic of the Tao.

The following summary of the Book is taken from Hsiian Ying’s explanations of our author:—‘ The two characters 3 4i Yd express the subject-matter of the Book, and “governing” points out the opposite error as the disease into which men are prone to fall. Let men be, and the tendencies of their nature will be at rest, and there will be no necessity for governing the world. Try to govern it, and the world will be full of trouble; and men will not be able to rest in the tendencies of their nature. These are the subjects of the first two paragraphs.

‘In the third paragraph we have the erroneous view of 3hui KAU that by government it was possible to make men’s minds good. He did not know that governing was a disturbing meddling with the minds of men; and how Lao-3ze set forth the evil of such government, going on till it be irretrievable. This long paragraph vigorously attacks the injury done by governing.

‘In the fourth paragraph, when Hwang-Ti questions

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Kwang Khang-jze, the latter sets aside his inquiry about the government of the world, and tells him about the government of himself; and in the fifth, when Yiin Kiang asks Hung Mung about governing men, the latter tells him about the nourishing of the heart. These two great paragraphs set forth clearly the subtlest points in the policy of Let-a-be. Truly it is not an empty name.

‘In the two last paragraphs, Awang in his own words and way sets forth, now by affirmation, and now by negation, the meaning of all that precedes.’

This summary of the Book will assist the reader in understanding it. For other remarks that will be helpful, I must refer him to the notes appended to the Text. The Book is not easy to understand or to translate; and a remark found in the Kia-khing edition of ‘the Ten Philosophers, by LQ Hsid-fa, who died in 1279, was welcome to me, ‘If you cannot understand one or two sentences of Kwang-jze, it does not matter.’

Book XII. THIEN Tf.

The first two characters of the Book are adopted as its name ;—Thien Ti, ‘Heaven and Earth.’ These are employed, not so much as the two greatest material forms in the universe, but as the Great Powers whose influences extend to all below and upon them. Silently and effectively, with entire spontaneity, their influence goes forth, and a rule and pattern is thus given to those on whom the business of the government of the world devolves. The one character ‘Heaven’ is employed throughout the Book as the denomination of this purposeless spontaneity which yet is so powerful.

The one character ‘Heaven’ is employed throughout the Book as the denomination of this purposeless spontaneity which yet is so powerful.

Li Sha-#ih says:—‘ This Book also sets forth clearly how the rulers of the world ought simply to act in accordance with the spontaneity of the virtue of Heaven ; abjuring sageness and putting away knowledge; and doing nothing: —in this way the T4o or proper Method of Government will be attained to. As to the coercive methods of Mo Tip. 144 and Hui-jze, they only serve to distress those who follow them.’

This object of the Book appears, more or less distinctly, in most of the illustrative paragraphs; though, as has been pointed out in the notes upon it, several of them must be considered to be spurious. Paragraphs 6, 7, and 11 are thus called in question, and, as most readers will feel, with reason. From 13 to the end, the paragraphsare held to be one long paragraph where Awang-jze introduces his own reflections in an unusual style; but the genuineness of the whole, so far as I have observed, has not been called in question.

Book XIII. TuHiEen TAo.

‘Thien Tao, the first two characters of the first paragraph, and prefixed to the Book as the name of it, are best translated by ‘The Way of Heaven,’ meaning the noiseless spontaneity, which characterises all the operations of nature, proceeding silently, yet ‘perfecting all things.’ As the rulers of the world attain to this same way in their government, and the sages among men attain to it in their teachings, both government and doctrine arrive at a corresponding perfection. ‘The joy of Heaven’ and ‘the joy of Men’ are both realised. There ought to be no purpose or will in the universe. ‘ Vacancy, stillness, placidity, tastelessness, quietude, silence, and non-action ; this is the perfection of the TAo and its characteristics.’

Our author dwells especially on doing-nothing or nonaction as the subject-matter of the Book. But as the world is full of doing, he endeavours to make a distinction between the Ruling Powers and those subordinate to and employed by them, to whom doing or action and purpose, though still without the thought of self, are necessary; and by this distinction he seems to me to give up the peculiarity of his system, so that some of the critics, especially Atyang Hsia, are obliged to confess that these portions of the Book are unlike the writing of Kwang-jze. Still the antagonism of Taoism to Confucianism is very apparent

BK. XIV. BRIEF NOTICES OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS, I45