Fetching
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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1All 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. We turn now to the twentieth chapter of Ahien’s Biographies, in which he gives an account of Yo f, the scion of a distinguished family, and who himself played a famous part, both as a politician and military leader, and became prince of Wang-#i under the kingdom of K4o in B.C. 279. Among his descendants was a Yo Kan, who learned in Ki ‘the words,’ that is, the Taoistic writings ‘ of Hwang-Ti and Ldo-jze from an old man who lived on the Ho-side.’ The origin of this old man was not known, but Yo Khan taught what he learned from him to a Mr. Ko, who again became preceptor to 3hdo 3han, the chief minister of X71, and afterwards of the new dynasty of Han, dying in B.C. 190. 5. Referring now to the catalogue of the Imperial Library of the dynasty of Sui (A.D. 589-618), we find that The catalogue it contained many editions of LAo’s treatise ofthe Sui dynasty. with commentaries. The first mentioned is ‘The Tao Teh Xing, with the commentary of the old man of the Ho-side, in the time of the emperor Wan of Han (B.C. 179-142). It is added in a note that the dynasty of Liang (A.D. 502-556) had possessed the edition of ‘ the old man of the Ho-side, of the time of the Warring States ; but that with some other texts and commentaries it had disappeared.’ I find it difficult to believe that there had been two old men of the Ho-side1, both teachers of Taoism and commentators on our King, but I am willing to content myself with the more recent work, and accept the copy that has been current—say from B.C. 150, when Sze-ma Khien could have been little more than a boy. Taoism was a favourite study with many of the Han emperors and their ladies. Hwéi-nan 3ze, of whose many quotations from 1 The earlier old man of the Ho-side is styled in Chinese yay é 5 AN the other yay éE Ri but the designations have the same meaning. Some critical objections to the genuineness of the latter’s commentary on the ground of the style are without foundation. 8 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH. II. the text of Lao I have spoken, was an uncle of the emperor Wan. To the emperor King (B.C. 156-143), the son of Wan, there is attributed the designation of Liao’s treatise as a King, a work of standard authority. At the beginning of his reign, we are told, some one was commending to him four works, among which were those of Lao-jze and Kwang-jze. Deeming that the work of Hwang-jze and Lao-jze was of a deeper character than the others, he ordered that it should be called a King, established a board for the study of Taoism, and issued an edict that the book should be learned and recited at court, and throughout the country’. Thenceforth it was so styled. We find Hwang-fai Mi (A. D. 215-282) referring to it as the Tao Teh King.
2Thenceforth it was so styled. We find Hwang-fai Mi (A. D. 215-282) referring to it as the Tao Teh King. The second place in the Sui catalogue is given to the text and commentary of Wang Pi or Wang Fi-sze, an The work of eXtraordinary scholar who died in A. D. 249, Wang Pi, at the early age of twenty-four. This work has always been much prized. It was its text which La Teh-ming used in his ‘Explanation of the Terms and Phrases of the Classics, in the seventh century. Among the editions of it which I possess is that printed in 1794 with the imperial moveable metal types. I“need not speak of editions or commentaries subsequent to Wang Pi’s. They soon begin to be many, and are only not so numerous as those of the Confucian Classics. 6. All the editions of the book are divided into two Divisions into Parts, the former called Tao, and the latter parts, chapters; Teh, meaning the Qualities or Characteristics and number of . to. . characters in the of the Tao, but this distinction of subjects is text. by no means uniformly adhered to. I referred already to the division of the whole into eightyone short chapters (37 + 44), which is by common tradition attributed to Ho-shang Kung, or ‘The old man of the Ho-side. Another very early commentator, called Yen 3un or Yen Xiin-phing, made a division into seventy-two chapters (40+ 32), under the influence, no doubt, of some 1 See 3i40 Hung’s Wings or Helps, ch. v, p. 11°. CH. II. INTRODUCTION. 9 mystical considerations. His predecessor, perhaps, had no better reason for his eighty-one; but the names of his chapters were, for the most part, happily chosen, and have been preserved. Wd Aang arranged the two parts in sixty-seven chapters (31+ 36). It is a mistake, however, to suppose, as even Mr. Wylie with all his general accuracy did}, that Wa ‘curtails the ordinary text to some extent.’ He does not curtail, but only re-arranges according to his fashion, uniting some of Ho-shang Kung’s chapters in one, and sometimes altering the order of their clauses. Sze-ma Ahien tells us that, as the treatise came from Lao-jze, it contained more than 5000 characters; that is, as one critic says, ‘more than 5000 and fewer than 6000.’ Ho-shang Kung’s text has 5350, and one copy 5590; Wang Pi’s, 5683, and one copy 5610. Two other early texts have been counted, giving 5720 and 5635 characters respectively. The brevity arises from the terse conciseness of the style, owing mainly to the absence of the embellishment of particles, which forms so striking a peculiarity in the composition of Mencius and AK wang-3ze. In passing on to speak, secondly and more briefly, of the far more voluminous writings of Kwang-3ze, I may say that I do not know of any other book of so ancient a date as the Tao Teh Xing, of which the authenticity of the origin and genuineness of the text can claim to be so well substantiated. II. 7. In the catalogue of the Han Library we have the entry of ‘Kwang-jze in fifty-two books or sections.’ By
3II. 7. In the catalogue of the Han Library we have the entry of ‘Kwang-jze in fifty-two books or sections.’ By The Books of the time of the Sui dynasty, the editions of wang-3ze. his work amounted to nearly a score. The earliest commentary that has come down to us goes by the name of Kwo Hsiang’s. He was an officer and scholar of the 3in dynasty, who died about the year 312. Another officer, also of 3in, called Hsiang Hsit, of rather an earlier date, had undertaken the same task, but left it incomplete ; and his manuscripts coming (not, as it appears, by 1 Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 173. Ke) THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH. I. any fraud) into Kwo’s hands, he altered and completed them as suited his own views, and then gave them to the public. In the short account of Kwo, given in the twentieth chapter of the Biographies of the 3in history, it is said that several tens of commentators had laboured unsatisfactorily on Awang’s writings before Hsiang Hsia took them in hand. As the joint result of the labours of the two men, however, we have only thirty-three of the fiftytwo sections mentioned in the Han catalogue. It is in vain that I have tried to discover how and when the other nineteen sections were lost. In one of the earliest commentaries on the Tao Teh King, that by Yen 3un, we have several quotations from Kwang-3ze which bear evidently the stamp of his handiwork, and are not in the current Books; but they would not altogether make up a single section. We have only to be thankful that so large a proportion of the original work has been preserved. Sd Shih (3ze-#an, and Tung-pho), it is well known, called in question the genuineness of Books 28 to 311. Books 15 and 16 have also been challenged, and a paragraph here and there in one or other of the Books. The various readings, according to a collation given by 3i4o Hung, are few. 8. There can be no doubt that the Books of Kwang-jze were hailed by all the friends of Téoism. It has been mentioned above that the names ‘ Hwang-Ti’ Importance to ’ : Taoism of the and ‘ Lao-3ze” were associated together as pos of denoting the masters of TAoism, and the wang-3ze. A ; phrase, ‘the words of Hwang-Ti and Lao-3ze, came to be no more than a name for the Tao Teh King. Gradually the two names were contracted into ‘Hwang Lao,’ as in the passage quoted on p. 6 from Pan Ka. After the Han dynasty, the name Hwang gave place to Kwang, and the names Liao Awang, and, sometimes inverted, Kwang Lao, were employed to denote the system or the texts of Taoism. In the account, for instance, of Ki 1 A brother of Shih, Si Aéh (9ze-yi and Ying-pin), wrote a remarkable commentary on the Tao Teh Xing; but it was Shih who first discredited those four Books, in his Inscription for the temple of Awang-3ze, prepared in 1078, CH. Il. INTRODUCTION. II
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.
1All 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. We turn now to the twentieth chapter of Ahien’s Biographies, in which he gives an account of Yo f, the scion of a distinguished family, and who himself played a famous part, both as a politician and military leader, and became prince of Wang-#i under the kingdom of K4o in B.C. 279. Among his descendants was a Yo Kan, who learned in Ki ‘the words,’ that is, the Taoistic writings ‘ of Hwang-Ti and Ldo-jze from an old man who lived on the Ho-side.’ The origin of this old man was not known, but Yo Khan taught what he learned from him to a Mr. Ko, who again became preceptor to 3hdo 3han, the chief minister of X71, and afterwards of the new dynasty of Han, dying in B.C. 190. 5. Referring now to the catalogue of the Imperial Library of the dynasty of Sui (A.D. 589-618), we find that The catalogue it contained many editions of LAo’s treatise ofthe Sui dynasty. with commentaries. The first mentioned is ‘The Tao Teh Xing, with the commentary of the old man of the Ho-side, in the time of the emperor Wan of Han (B.C. 179-142). It is added in a note that the dynasty of Liang (A.D. 502-556) had possessed the edition of ‘ the old man of the Ho-side, of the time of the Warring States ; but that with some other texts and commentaries it had disappeared.’ I find it difficult to believe that there had been two old men of the Ho-side1, both teachers of Taoism and commentators on our King, but I am willing to content myself with the more recent work, and accept the copy that has been current—say from B.C. 150, when Sze-ma Khien could have been little more than a boy. Taoism was a favourite study with many of the Han emperors and their ladies. Hwéi-nan 3ze, of whose many quotations from 1 The earlier old man of the Ho-side is styled in Chinese yay é 5 AN the other yay éE Ri but the designations have the same meaning. Some critical objections to the genuineness of the latter’s commentary on the ground of the style are without foundation. 8 THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH. II. the text of Lao I have spoken, was an uncle of the emperor Wan. To the emperor King (B.C. 156-143), the son of Wan, there is attributed the designation of Liao’s treatise as a King, a work of standard authority. At the beginning of his reign, we are told, some one was commending to him four works, among which were those of Lao-jze and Kwang-jze. Deeming that the work of Hwang-jze and Lao-jze was of a deeper character than the others, he ordered that it should be called a King, established a board for the study of Taoism, and issued an edict that the book should be learned and recited at court, and throughout the country’. Thenceforth it was so styled. We find Hwang-fai Mi (A. D. 215-282) referring to it as the Tao Teh King.
2Thenceforth it was so styled. We find Hwang-fai Mi (A. D. 215-282) referring to it as the Tao Teh King. The second place in the Sui catalogue is given to the text and commentary of Wang Pi or Wang Fi-sze, an The work of eXtraordinary scholar who died in A. D. 249, Wang Pi, at the early age of twenty-four. This work has always been much prized. It was its text which La Teh-ming used in his ‘Explanation of the Terms and Phrases of the Classics, in the seventh century. Among the editions of it which I possess is that printed in 1794 with the imperial moveable metal types. I“need not speak of editions or commentaries subsequent to Wang Pi’s. They soon begin to be many, and are only not so numerous as those of the Confucian Classics. 6. All the editions of the book are divided into two Divisions into Parts, the former called Tao, and the latter parts, chapters; Teh, meaning the Qualities or Characteristics and number of . to. . characters in the of the Tao, but this distinction of subjects is text. by no means uniformly adhered to. I referred already to the division of the whole into eightyone short chapters (37 + 44), which is by common tradition attributed to Ho-shang Kung, or ‘The old man of the Ho-side. Another very early commentator, called Yen 3un or Yen Xiin-phing, made a division into seventy-two chapters (40+ 32), under the influence, no doubt, of some 1 See 3i40 Hung’s Wings or Helps, ch. v, p. 11°. CH. II. INTRODUCTION. 9 mystical considerations. His predecessor, perhaps, had no better reason for his eighty-one; but the names of his chapters were, for the most part, happily chosen, and have been preserved. Wd Aang arranged the two parts in sixty-seven chapters (31+ 36). It is a mistake, however, to suppose, as even Mr. Wylie with all his general accuracy did}, that Wa ‘curtails the ordinary text to some extent.’ He does not curtail, but only re-arranges according to his fashion, uniting some of Ho-shang Kung’s chapters in one, and sometimes altering the order of their clauses. Sze-ma Ahien tells us that, as the treatise came from Lao-jze, it contained more than 5000 characters; that is, as one critic says, ‘more than 5000 and fewer than 6000.’ Ho-shang Kung’s text has 5350, and one copy 5590; Wang Pi’s, 5683, and one copy 5610. Two other early texts have been counted, giving 5720 and 5635 characters respectively. The brevity arises from the terse conciseness of the style, owing mainly to the absence of the embellishment of particles, which forms so striking a peculiarity in the composition of Mencius and AK wang-3ze. In passing on to speak, secondly and more briefly, of the far more voluminous writings of Kwang-3ze, I may say that I do not know of any other book of so ancient a date as the Tao Teh Xing, of which the authenticity of the origin and genuineness of the text can claim to be so well substantiated. II. 7. In the catalogue of the Han Library we have the entry of ‘Kwang-jze in fifty-two books or sections.’ By
3II. 7. In the catalogue of the Han Library we have the entry of ‘Kwang-jze in fifty-two books or sections.’ By The Books of the time of the Sui dynasty, the editions of wang-3ze. his work amounted to nearly a score. The earliest commentary that has come down to us goes by the name of Kwo Hsiang’s. He was an officer and scholar of the 3in dynasty, who died about the year 312. Another officer, also of 3in, called Hsiang Hsit, of rather an earlier date, had undertaken the same task, but left it incomplete ; and his manuscripts coming (not, as it appears, by 1 Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 173. Ke) THE TEXTS OF TAOISM. CH. I. any fraud) into Kwo’s hands, he altered and completed them as suited his own views, and then gave them to the public. In the short account of Kwo, given in the twentieth chapter of the Biographies of the 3in history, it is said that several tens of commentators had laboured unsatisfactorily on Awang’s writings before Hsiang Hsia took them in hand. As the joint result of the labours of the two men, however, we have only thirty-three of the fiftytwo sections mentioned in the Han catalogue. It is in vain that I have tried to discover how and when the other nineteen sections were lost. In one of the earliest commentaries on the Tao Teh King, that by Yen 3un, we have several quotations from Kwang-3ze which bear evidently the stamp of his handiwork, and are not in the current Books; but they would not altogether make up a single section. We have only to be thankful that so large a proportion of the original work has been preserved. Sd Shih (3ze-#an, and Tung-pho), it is well known, called in question the genuineness of Books 28 to 311. Books 15 and 16 have also been challenged, and a paragraph here and there in one or other of the Books. The various readings, according to a collation given by 3i4o Hung, are few. 8. There can be no doubt that the Books of Kwang-jze were hailed by all the friends of Téoism. It has been mentioned above that the names ‘ Hwang-Ti’ Importance to ’ : Taoism of the and ‘ Lao-3ze” were associated together as pos of denoting the masters of TAoism, and the wang-3ze. A ; phrase, ‘the words of Hwang-Ti and Lao-3ze, came to be no more than a name for the Tao Teh King. Gradually the two names were contracted into ‘Hwang Lao,’ as in the passage quoted on p. 6 from Pan Ka. After the Han dynasty, the name Hwang gave place to Kwang, and the names Liao Awang, and, sometimes inverted, Kwang Lao, were employed to denote the system or the texts of Taoism. In the account, for instance, of Ki 1 A brother of Shih, Si Aéh (9ze-yi and Ying-pin), wrote a remarkable commentary on the Tao Teh Xing; but it was Shih who first discredited those four Books, in his Inscription for the temple of Awang-3ze, prepared in 1078, CH. Il. INTRODUCTION. II
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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