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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1I do not think that AKwang-jze had any historical evidence for the statements which he makes about those early days, the men who flourished in them, and their ways. His narratives are for the most part fictions, in which the names and incidents are of his own devising. They are no more true as matters of fact than the accounts of the characters in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress are true, with reference to any particular individuals; but as these last are grandly true of myriads of minds in different ages, so may we read in Kwang-}ze’s stories the thoughts of Taoistic men beyond the restrictions of place and time. He believed that those thoughts were as old as the men to whom he attributed them. I find in his belief a ground for believing mysclf that to Taoism, as well as to Confucianism, we ought to attribute a much earlier origin than the famous men whose names they bear. Perhaps they did not differ so much at first as they came afterwards to do in the hands of Confucius and Lao-jze, both great thinkers, the one more of a moralist, and the other more of a metaphysician. When and how, if they were ever more akin than they came to be, their divergence took place, are difficult questions on which it may be well to make some remarks after we have tried to set forth the most important principles of Taoism. Those principles have to be learned from the treatise of Lao-jze and the writings of Kwang-jze. We can hardly 1 See in Books IX, X, and XII. B2 4 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH, Il. say that the Taoism taught in them is the Taoism now current in China, or that has been current in it for many centuries; but in an inquiry into the nature and origin of religions these are the authorities that must be consulted for Tdoism, and whose evidence must be accepted. The treatise, ‘Actions and the Responses to them,’ will show one of the phases of it at a much later period. CHAPTER II. THE TEXTS OF THE TAO TEH KING AND KWANG- 3ZE SHOU, AS REGARDS THEIR AUTHENTICITY AND GENUINENESS, AND THE ARRANGEMENT OF THEM. I. 1. I will now state briefly, first, the grounds on which I accept the Tao Teh Xing as a genuine production of the age to which it has been assigned, and the truth of its authorship by Lao-jzc to whom it has bcen ascribed. It would not have been necessary a few years ago to write as if these points could be called in question, but in 1886 Mr. Herbert A. Giles, of Her Majesty’s Consular Service in China, and one of the ablest Chinese scholars living, vehemently called them in question in an article in the China Review for the months of March and April. His strictures have been replied to, and I am not going to revive here the controversy which they produced, but only to state a portion of the evidence which satisfies my own mind on the two points just mentioned.
2His strictures have been replied to, and I am not going to revive here the controversy which they produced, but only to state a portion of the evidence which satisfies my own mind on the two points just mentioned. 2. It has been said above that the year B.C. 604 was, probably, that of Lao-jze’s birth. The year of his death is not recorded. Sze-ma K‘/ien, the first great Chinese his- The evidence of tOtian, who died in about B.C. 85, commences Sze-ma Xhien, his ‘ Biographies’ with a short account of LAo- the historian. 47e, He tells us that the philosopher had been a curator of the Royal Library of X4u, and that, mourning over the decadence of the dynasty, he wished to withdraw from the world, and proceeded to the pass or defile of Hsien-ku }, 1 In the present district of Ling-pao, Shan Kau, province of Ho-nan. CH. Il. INTRODUCTION. 5 leading from China to the west. There he was recognised by the warden of the pass, Yin Hsi (often called Kwan Yin), himself a well-known T4oist, who insisted on his leaving him a writing before he went into seclusion. Lao-jze then wrote his views on ‘The TAo and its Characteristics, in two parts or sections, containing more than 5000 characters, gave the manuscript to the warden, and went his way; ‘nor is it known where he died.’ This account is strange enough, and we need not wonder that it was by and by embellished with many marvels. It contains, however, the definite statements that Lao-jze wrote the Tao Teh Xing in two parts, and consisting of more than 5000 characters. And that A/ien was himself well acquainted with the treatise is apparent from his quotations from it, with, in almost every case, the specification of the author. He thus adduces part of the first chapter, and a large portion of the last chapter but one. His brief references also to L4o-jze and his writings are numerous. 3. But between Lao-jze and Sze-ma K‘ien there were many Taoist writers whose works remain. I may specify ; of them Lieh-jze (assuming that his chapters, Lieh-3ze, Han : : Fei-jze, and though not composed in their present form by other ‘Taoist him, may yet be accepted as fair specimens ’ of his teaching); Awang-jze (of the fourth century B.c. We find him refusing to accept high office from king Wei of KA, B.C. 339-299); Han Fei, a voluminous author, who died by his own hand in B.C. 230; and Lid An, a scion of the Imperial House of Han, king of Hwédi-nan, and better known to us as Hwai-nan 3ze, who also died by his own hand in B.c. 122. In the books of all these men we find quotations of many passages that are in our treatise. They are expressly said to be, many of them, quotations from L&éo-jze; Han Fei several times all but 1 Tn an ordinary Student’s Manual I find a note with reference to this incident to which it may be worth while to give a place here :—The warden, it is said, set before LAo-3ze a dish of tea; and this was the origin of the custom of tea- drinking between host and guest (see the 4] 2, 54 # = VB,
3ch. 7, on Food and Drink). 6 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH. IL. shows the book beneath his eyes. To show how numerous the quotations by Han Fei and Lifi An are, let it be borne in mind that the Tao Teh King has come down to us as divided into eighty-one short chapters ; and that the whole of it is shorter than the shortest of our Gospels. Of the eighty-one chapters, either the whole or portions of seventyone are found in those two writers. There are other authors not so decidedly Taoistic, in whom we find quotations from the little book. These quotations are in general wonderfully correct. Various readings indeed there are; but if we were sure that the writers did trust to memory, their differences would only prove that copies of the text had been multiplied from the very first. In passing on from quotations to the complete text, I will Evidence of Pan Clinch the assertion that K/ien was well Ka. acquainted with our treatise, by a passage from the History of the Former Han Dynasty (B.C. 206- A.D, 24), which was begun to be compiled by Pan Ka, who died however in 92, and left a portion to be completed by his sister, the famous Pan Kao. The thirty-second chapter of his Biographies is devoted to Sze-ma A4ien, and towards the end it is said that ‘on the subject of the Great TAo he preferred Hwang and L4o to the six King. ‘Hwang and Lao’ must there be the writings of Hwang-Ti and Lao-jze. The association of the two names also illustrates the antiquity claimed for Taoism, and the subject of note 1, p. 2. 4. We go on from quotations to complete texts, and turn, first, to the catalogue of the Imperial Library of Han, as compiled by Lif Hsin, not later than the commencement of our Christian era. There are entered in it Taoist works by Catalogue of the thirty-seven different authors, containing in all Imperial Library 993 chapters or sections (phien). {1 Yin, the of Han. premier of Kang Thang (B.c. 1766), heads the list with fifty-one sections. There are in it four editions of Lao-jze’s work with commentaries :—by a Mr. Lin, in four sections; a Mr. F4, in thirty-seven sections; a Mr. Hsii, in six sections; and by Lid Hsiang, Hsin’s own father, in four sections. All these four works have since perished, but there they were in the Imperial Library before CH. IL. INTRODUCTION. 7 our era began. Awang-jze is in the same list in fifty-two books or sections, the greater part of which have happily escaped the devouring tooth of time.
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.
1I do not think that AKwang-jze had any historical evidence for the statements which he makes about those early days, the men who flourished in them, and their ways. His narratives are for the most part fictions, in which the names and incidents are of his own devising. They are no more true as matters of fact than the accounts of the characters in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress are true, with reference to any particular individuals; but as these last are grandly true of myriads of minds in different ages, so may we read in Kwang-}ze’s stories the thoughts of Taoistic men beyond the restrictions of place and time. He believed that those thoughts were as old as the men to whom he attributed them. I find in his belief a ground for believing mysclf that to Taoism, as well as to Confucianism, we ought to attribute a much earlier origin than the famous men whose names they bear. Perhaps they did not differ so much at first as they came afterwards to do in the hands of Confucius and Lao-jze, both great thinkers, the one more of a moralist, and the other more of a metaphysician. When and how, if they were ever more akin than they came to be, their divergence took place, are difficult questions on which it may be well to make some remarks after we have tried to set forth the most important principles of Taoism. Those principles have to be learned from the treatise of Lao-jze and the writings of Kwang-jze. We can hardly 1 See in Books IX, X, and XII. B2 4 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH, Il. say that the Taoism taught in them is the Taoism now current in China, or that has been current in it for many centuries; but in an inquiry into the nature and origin of religions these are the authorities that must be consulted for Tdoism, and whose evidence must be accepted. The treatise, ‘Actions and the Responses to them,’ will show one of the phases of it at a much later period. CHAPTER II. THE TEXTS OF THE TAO TEH KING AND KWANG- 3ZE SHOU, AS REGARDS THEIR AUTHENTICITY AND GENUINENESS, AND THE ARRANGEMENT OF THEM. I. 1. I will now state briefly, first, the grounds on which I accept the Tao Teh Xing as a genuine production of the age to which it has been assigned, and the truth of its authorship by Lao-jzc to whom it has bcen ascribed. It would not have been necessary a few years ago to write as if these points could be called in question, but in 1886 Mr. Herbert A. Giles, of Her Majesty’s Consular Service in China, and one of the ablest Chinese scholars living, vehemently called them in question in an article in the China Review for the months of March and April. His strictures have been replied to, and I am not going to revive here the controversy which they produced, but only to state a portion of the evidence which satisfies my own mind on the two points just mentioned.
2His strictures have been replied to, and I am not going to revive here the controversy which they produced, but only to state a portion of the evidence which satisfies my own mind on the two points just mentioned. 2. It has been said above that the year B.C. 604 was, probably, that of Lao-jze’s birth. The year of his death is not recorded. Sze-ma K‘/ien, the first great Chinese his- The evidence of tOtian, who died in about B.C. 85, commences Sze-ma Xhien, his ‘ Biographies’ with a short account of LAo- the historian. 47e, He tells us that the philosopher had been a curator of the Royal Library of X4u, and that, mourning over the decadence of the dynasty, he wished to withdraw from the world, and proceeded to the pass or defile of Hsien-ku }, 1 In the present district of Ling-pao, Shan Kau, province of Ho-nan. CH. Il. INTRODUCTION. 5 leading from China to the west. There he was recognised by the warden of the pass, Yin Hsi (often called Kwan Yin), himself a well-known T4oist, who insisted on his leaving him a writing before he went into seclusion. Lao-jze then wrote his views on ‘The TAo and its Characteristics, in two parts or sections, containing more than 5000 characters, gave the manuscript to the warden, and went his way; ‘nor is it known where he died.’ This account is strange enough, and we need not wonder that it was by and by embellished with many marvels. It contains, however, the definite statements that Lao-jze wrote the Tao Teh Xing in two parts, and consisting of more than 5000 characters. And that A/ien was himself well acquainted with the treatise is apparent from his quotations from it, with, in almost every case, the specification of the author. He thus adduces part of the first chapter, and a large portion of the last chapter but one. His brief references also to L4o-jze and his writings are numerous. 3. But between Lao-jze and Sze-ma K‘ien there were many Taoist writers whose works remain. I may specify ; of them Lieh-jze (assuming that his chapters, Lieh-3ze, Han : : Fei-jze, and though not composed in their present form by other ‘Taoist him, may yet be accepted as fair specimens ’ of his teaching); Awang-jze (of the fourth century B.c. We find him refusing to accept high office from king Wei of KA, B.C. 339-299); Han Fei, a voluminous author, who died by his own hand in B.C. 230; and Lid An, a scion of the Imperial House of Han, king of Hwédi-nan, and better known to us as Hwai-nan 3ze, who also died by his own hand in B.c. 122. In the books of all these men we find quotations of many passages that are in our treatise. They are expressly said to be, many of them, quotations from L&éo-jze; Han Fei several times all but 1 Tn an ordinary Student’s Manual I find a note with reference to this incident to which it may be worth while to give a place here :—The warden, it is said, set before LAo-3ze a dish of tea; and this was the origin of the custom of tea- drinking between host and guest (see the 4] 2, 54 # = VB,
3ch. 7, on Food and Drink). 6 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH. IL. shows the book beneath his eyes. To show how numerous the quotations by Han Fei and Lifi An are, let it be borne in mind that the Tao Teh King has come down to us as divided into eighty-one short chapters ; and that the whole of it is shorter than the shortest of our Gospels. Of the eighty-one chapters, either the whole or portions of seventyone are found in those two writers. There are other authors not so decidedly Taoistic, in whom we find quotations from the little book. These quotations are in general wonderfully correct. Various readings indeed there are; but if we were sure that the writers did trust to memory, their differences would only prove that copies of the text had been multiplied from the very first. In passing on from quotations to the complete text, I will Evidence of Pan Clinch the assertion that K/ien was well Ka. acquainted with our treatise, by a passage from the History of the Former Han Dynasty (B.C. 206- A.D, 24), which was begun to be compiled by Pan Ka, who died however in 92, and left a portion to be completed by his sister, the famous Pan Kao. The thirty-second chapter of his Biographies is devoted to Sze-ma A4ien, and towards the end it is said that ‘on the subject of the Great TAo he preferred Hwang and L4o to the six King. ‘Hwang and Lao’ must there be the writings of Hwang-Ti and Lao-jze. The association of the two names also illustrates the antiquity claimed for Taoism, and the subject of note 1, p. 2. 4. We go on from quotations to complete texts, and turn, first, to the catalogue of the Imperial Library of Han, as compiled by Lif Hsin, not later than the commencement of our Christian era. There are entered in it Taoist works by Catalogue of the thirty-seven different authors, containing in all Imperial Library 993 chapters or sections (phien). {1 Yin, the of Han. premier of Kang Thang (B.c. 1766), heads the list with fifty-one sections. There are in it four editions of Lao-jze’s work with commentaries :—by a Mr. Lin, in four sections; a Mr. F4, in thirty-seven sections; a Mr. Hsii, in six sections; and by Lid Hsiang, Hsin’s own father, in four sections. All these four works have since perished, but there they were in the Imperial Library before CH. IL. INTRODUCTION. 7 our era began. Awang-jze is in the same list in fifty-two books or sections, the greater part of which have happily escaped the devouring tooth of time.
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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