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1XI, par. 5. 2 Bk. XVI, par. 2. * Tao Teh Xing, ch. 1y. 30 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH, Il. but rather retrograded, and is represented by the still more degenerate Taoism of the present day. There is a short parabolic story of Kwang-jze, intended to represent the antagonism between Taoism and knowledge, which has always struck me as curious. The last paragraph of his seventh Book is this:—‘The Ruler (or god Ti) of the Southern Ocean was Sha (that is, Heedless) ; the Ruler of the Northern Ocean was H 4i (that is, Hasty); and the Ruler of the Centre was Hwun-tun (that is, Chaos). ShQ and Ht were continually meeting in the land of Hwun-tun, who treated them very well. They consulted together how they might repay his kindness, and said, “Men have all seven orifices for the purposes of seeing, hearing, eating, and breathing, while this (poor) Ruler alone has not one. Let us try and make them for him.” <Accordingly they dug one orifice in him every day; and at the end of seven days Chaos died.’ So it was that Chaos passed away before Light. So did the nameless Simplicity of the T 40 disappear before Knowledge. But it was better that the Chaos should give place tothe Kosmos. ‘Heedless’ and ‘ Hasty’ did a good deed. g. I have thus set forth eight characteristics of the Taoistic system, having respect mostly to what is peculiar and mystical in it. I will now conclude my exhibition of it by The practical bringing together under one head the prac- lessons of tical lessons of its author for men individually, Téo-ye and for the administration of government. The praise of whatever excellence these possess belongs to Lao himself: Kwang-3ze devotes himself mainly to the illustration of the abstruse and difficult points. First, it does not surprise us that in his rules for individual man, LAo should place Humility in the foremost place. A favourite illustration with him of the T4o is water. In his eighth chapter he says :—‘ The highest excellence is like that of water. The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying, without striving to the contrary, the low ground which all men dislike. Hence (its way) is near to that of the Tao.’ To the same effect in the seventy-eighth Humility. CH. III. INTRODUCTION. 31 chapter :—‘ There is nothing in the world more soft and weak than water, and yet for attacking things that are firm and strong there is nothing that can take precedence of it. Every one in the world knows that the soft overcomes the hard, and the weak the strong; but no one is able to carry it out in practice.’ In his sixty-seventh chapter Lao associates with Humility two other virtues, and calls them his three Precious Things or LAo’s three Jewels. They are Gentleness, Economy, and Jewels. = Shrinking from taking precedence of others. ‘With that Gentleness,’ he says, ‘I can be bold; with that Economy I can be liberal; Shrinking from taking precedence of others, I can become a vessel of the highest honour.’
2They are Gentleness, Economy, and Jewels. = Shrinking from taking precedence of others. ‘With that Gentleness,’ he says, ‘I can be bold; with that Economy I can be liberal; Shrinking from taking precedence of others, I can become a vessel of the highest honour.’ And in his sixty-third chapter, he rises to a still loftier height of morality. He says, ‘(It is the way of the T4o) to act without (thinking of) acting, to conduct affairs without (feeling) the trouble of them; to taste without discerning any flavour, to consider the small as great, and the few as many, and to recompense injury with kindness, Here is the grand Christian precept, ‘Render to no man evil for evil. If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink. Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.’ We know that the maxim made some noise in its author’s lifetime ; that the disciples of Confucius consulted him about it, and that he was unable to receive it!, It comes in with less important matters by virtue of the TAaoistic ‘rule of contraries.’ I have been surprised to find what little reference to it I have met with in the course of my Chinese reading. I do not think that ' Kwang-3ze takes notice of it to illustrate it after his fashion. There, however, it isin the Tao Teh King. The fruit of it has yet to be developed. Second, Lao laid down the same rule for the policy of the state as for the life of the individual. He says in his sixty-first chapter, ‘What makes a state great is its being like a low-lying, down-flowing stream ;—it becomes the Rendering good for evil. 1 Confucian Analects, XIV, 36. en = eerste meee - -- 32 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH, IIT. centre to which tend all (the small states) under heaven.’ He then uses an illustration which will produce a smile :— ‘Take the case of all females. The female always overcomes the male by her stillness. Stillness may be considered (a sort of) abasement.’ Resuming his subject, he adds, ‘Thus it is that a great state, by condescending to small states, gains them for itself; and that small states, by abasing themselves to a great state, win it over to them. In the one case the abasement tends to gaining adherents ; in the other case, to procuring favour. The great state only wishes to unite men together and nourish them; a small state only wishes to be received by, and to serve, the other. Each gets what it desires, but the great state must learn to abase itself.’
3The great state only wishes to unite men together and nourish them; a small state only wishes to be received by, and to serve, the other. Each gets what it desires, but the great state must learn to abase itself.’ ‘All very well in theory,’ some one will exclaim, ‘but, the world has not seen it yet reduced to practice.’ So it is. The fact is deplorable. No one saw the misery arising from it, and exposed its unreasonableness more unsparingly, than Kwang-jze. But it was all in vain in his time, as it has been in all the centuries that have since rolled their course. Philosophy, philanthropy, and religion have still to toil on, ‘faint, yet pursuing, believing that the time will yet come when humility and love shall secure the reign of peace and good will among the nations of men. While enjoining humility, Lao protested against war. In his thirty-first chapter he says, ‘Arms, however beautiful, are instruments of evil omen ; hateful, it may be said, to all creatures. They who have the Tao do not like to employ them.’ Perhaps in his sixty-ninth chapter he allows defensive war, but he adds, ‘There is no calamity greater than that of lightly engaging in war. To do that is near losing the gentleness which is so precious. Thus it is that when weapons are (actually) crossed, he who deplores the (situation) conquers.’ There are some other points in the practical lessons of Taoism to which I should like to call the attention of the reader, but I must refer him for them to the chapters of the Tao Teh Xing, and the Books of Kwang-jze. Its salient features have been set forth somewhat fully. Not- CH. IV. INTRODUCTION. 33 withstanding the scorn poured so freely on Confucius by Kwang-jze and other Taoist writers, he proved in the course of time too strong for Lao as the teacher of their people. The entrance of Buddhism, moreover, into the country in our first century, was very injurious to Taoism, which still exists, but is only the shadow of its former self. It is tolerated by the government, but not patronised as it was when emperors and empresses seemed to think more of it than of Confucianism. It is by the spread of knowledge, which it has always opposed, that its overthrow and disappearance will be brought about ere long. CHAPTER IV. ACCOUNTS OF LAO-3ZE AND KWANG-3ZE GIVEN BY SzE-MA K4AZIEN. It seems desirable, before passing from Lao and Kwang in this Introduction, to give a place in it to what is said about them by Sze-ma KXhien. I have said that not a single proper name occurs in the Téo Teh Xing. There is hardly an historical allusion in it. Only one chapter, the twentieth, has somewhat of an autobiographical character. It tells us, however, of no incidents of his life. He appears alone in the world through his cultivation of the TAo, melancholy and misunderstood, yet binding that Tao more closely to his bosom.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1XI, par. 5. 2 Bk. XVI, par. 2. * Tao Teh Xing, ch. 1y. 30 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH, Il. but rather retrograded, and is represented by the still more degenerate Taoism of the present day. There is a short parabolic story of Kwang-jze, intended to represent the antagonism between Taoism and knowledge, which has always struck me as curious. The last paragraph of his seventh Book is this:—‘The Ruler (or god Ti) of the Southern Ocean was Sha (that is, Heedless) ; the Ruler of the Northern Ocean was H 4i (that is, Hasty); and the Ruler of the Centre was Hwun-tun (that is, Chaos). ShQ and Ht were continually meeting in the land of Hwun-tun, who treated them very well. They consulted together how they might repay his kindness, and said, “Men have all seven orifices for the purposes of seeing, hearing, eating, and breathing, while this (poor) Ruler alone has not one. Let us try and make them for him.” <Accordingly they dug one orifice in him every day; and at the end of seven days Chaos died.’ So it was that Chaos passed away before Light. So did the nameless Simplicity of the T 40 disappear before Knowledge. But it was better that the Chaos should give place tothe Kosmos. ‘Heedless’ and ‘ Hasty’ did a good deed. g. I have thus set forth eight characteristics of the Taoistic system, having respect mostly to what is peculiar and mystical in it. I will now conclude my exhibition of it by The practical bringing together under one head the prac- lessons of tical lessons of its author for men individually, Téo-ye and for the administration of government. The praise of whatever excellence these possess belongs to Lao himself: Kwang-3ze devotes himself mainly to the illustration of the abstruse and difficult points. First, it does not surprise us that in his rules for individual man, LAo should place Humility in the foremost place. A favourite illustration with him of the T4o is water. In his eighth chapter he says :—‘ The highest excellence is like that of water. The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying, without striving to the contrary, the low ground which all men dislike. Hence (its way) is near to that of the Tao.’ To the same effect in the seventy-eighth Humility. CH. III. INTRODUCTION. 31 chapter :—‘ There is nothing in the world more soft and weak than water, and yet for attacking things that are firm and strong there is nothing that can take precedence of it. Every one in the world knows that the soft overcomes the hard, and the weak the strong; but no one is able to carry it out in practice.’ In his sixty-seventh chapter Lao associates with Humility two other virtues, and calls them his three Precious Things or LAo’s three Jewels. They are Gentleness, Economy, and Jewels. = Shrinking from taking precedence of others. ‘With that Gentleness,’ he says, ‘I can be bold; with that Economy I can be liberal; Shrinking from taking precedence of others, I can become a vessel of the highest honour.’
2They are Gentleness, Economy, and Jewels. = Shrinking from taking precedence of others. ‘With that Gentleness,’ he says, ‘I can be bold; with that Economy I can be liberal; Shrinking from taking precedence of others, I can become a vessel of the highest honour.’ And in his sixty-third chapter, he rises to a still loftier height of morality. He says, ‘(It is the way of the T4o) to act without (thinking of) acting, to conduct affairs without (feeling) the trouble of them; to taste without discerning any flavour, to consider the small as great, and the few as many, and to recompense injury with kindness, Here is the grand Christian precept, ‘Render to no man evil for evil. If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink. Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.’ We know that the maxim made some noise in its author’s lifetime ; that the disciples of Confucius consulted him about it, and that he was unable to receive it!, It comes in with less important matters by virtue of the TAaoistic ‘rule of contraries.’ I have been surprised to find what little reference to it I have met with in the course of my Chinese reading. I do not think that ' Kwang-3ze takes notice of it to illustrate it after his fashion. There, however, it isin the Tao Teh King. The fruit of it has yet to be developed. Second, Lao laid down the same rule for the policy of the state as for the life of the individual. He says in his sixty-first chapter, ‘What makes a state great is its being like a low-lying, down-flowing stream ;—it becomes the Rendering good for evil. 1 Confucian Analects, XIV, 36. en = eerste meee - -- 32 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH, IIT. centre to which tend all (the small states) under heaven.’ He then uses an illustration which will produce a smile :— ‘Take the case of all females. The female always overcomes the male by her stillness. Stillness may be considered (a sort of) abasement.’ Resuming his subject, he adds, ‘Thus it is that a great state, by condescending to small states, gains them for itself; and that small states, by abasing themselves to a great state, win it over to them. In the one case the abasement tends to gaining adherents ; in the other case, to procuring favour. The great state only wishes to unite men together and nourish them; a small state only wishes to be received by, and to serve, the other. Each gets what it desires, but the great state must learn to abase itself.’
3The great state only wishes to unite men together and nourish them; a small state only wishes to be received by, and to serve, the other. Each gets what it desires, but the great state must learn to abase itself.’ ‘All very well in theory,’ some one will exclaim, ‘but, the world has not seen it yet reduced to practice.’ So it is. The fact is deplorable. No one saw the misery arising from it, and exposed its unreasonableness more unsparingly, than Kwang-jze. But it was all in vain in his time, as it has been in all the centuries that have since rolled their course. Philosophy, philanthropy, and religion have still to toil on, ‘faint, yet pursuing, believing that the time will yet come when humility and love shall secure the reign of peace and good will among the nations of men. While enjoining humility, Lao protested against war. In his thirty-first chapter he says, ‘Arms, however beautiful, are instruments of evil omen ; hateful, it may be said, to all creatures. They who have the Tao do not like to employ them.’ Perhaps in his sixty-ninth chapter he allows defensive war, but he adds, ‘There is no calamity greater than that of lightly engaging in war. To do that is near losing the gentleness which is so precious. Thus it is that when weapons are (actually) crossed, he who deplores the (situation) conquers.’ There are some other points in the practical lessons of Taoism to which I should like to call the attention of the reader, but I must refer him for them to the chapters of the Tao Teh Xing, and the Books of Kwang-jze. Its salient features have been set forth somewhat fully. Not- CH. IV. INTRODUCTION. 33 withstanding the scorn poured so freely on Confucius by Kwang-jze and other Taoist writers, he proved in the course of time too strong for Lao as the teacher of their people. The entrance of Buddhism, moreover, into the country in our first century, was very injurious to Taoism, which still exists, but is only the shadow of its former self. It is tolerated by the government, but not patronised as it was when emperors and empresses seemed to think more of it than of Confucianism. It is by the spread of knowledge, which it has always opposed, that its overthrow and disappearance will be brought about ere long. CHAPTER IV. ACCOUNTS OF LAO-3ZE AND KWANG-3ZE GIVEN BY SzE-MA K4AZIEN. It seems desirable, before passing from Lao and Kwang in this Introduction, to give a place in it to what is said about them by Sze-ma KXhien. I have said that not a single proper name occurs in the Téo Teh Xing. There is hardly an historical allusion in it. Only one chapter, the twentieth, has somewhat of an autobiographical character. It tells us, however, of no incidents of his life. He appears alone in the world through his cultivation of the TAo, melancholy and misunderstood, yet binding that Tao more closely to his bosom.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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