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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1Wylie 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. 40 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CHV. 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
2CH. 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.
3208, 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. CH. V. INTRODUCTION, 43
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.
1Wylie 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. 40 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CHV. 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
2CH. 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.
3208, 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. CH. V. INTRODUCTION, 43
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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