“ Even still, with the form of a religion, Tâoism is in reality a conglomeration of base and dangerous superstitions. Alchemy, geomancy and spiritualism have dwelt and dwell under its shadow. Each of its “three Holy Ones” has the title of Thien Tsun, “the Heavenly and Honoured,” taken from Buddhism, and also of Shang Ti or God, taken from the old religion of the country. The most popular deity, however, is not one of them, but has the title of Yü Wang Shang Tî, “God, the Perfect King.” ”

“ What, then, was the quality which Lâo-tsze had in view, and which he thought of as the Tâo—there in the library of Chow, at the pass of the valley of Han, and where he met the end of his life beyond the limits of the civilized state? It was the simplicity of spontaneity, action The doctrine of “the way.” (which might be called non-action) without motive, free from all selfish purpose, resting in nothing but its own accomplishment. This is found in the phenomena of the material world. “All things spring up without a word spoken, and grow without a claim for their production. ”

“ A corresponding course observed by individual man in his government of himself becoming again “as a little child” (chaps. x. and xxviii.) will have corresponding results. “His constant virtue will be complete, and he will return to the primitive simplicity” (chap. xxviii.) .
Such is the subject matter of the Tâo Teh King—the operation of this method or Tâo, “without striving or crying,” in nature, in society and in the individual. Much that is very beautiful and practical is inculcated in connexion with its working in the individual character. ”

“ LÂO-TSZE, or Laou-Tsze, the designation of the Chinese author of the celebrated treatise called Tâo Teh King, and the reputed founder of the religion called Tâoism. The Chinese characters composing the designation may mean either “the Old Son,” which commonly assumes with foreigners the form of “the Old Boy,” or “the Old Philosopher.” The latter significance is attached to them by Dr Chalmers in his translation of the treatise published in 1868 under the title of The Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity and Morality of “the Old Philosopher,” Lâo-tsze. ”

“ Lâo-tsze did not need to go further afield to find all that he has said about government.
We have confined ourselves to the Tâoism of the Tâo Teh King without touching on the religion Tâoism now existing in China, but which did not take shape until more than five hundred years after the death of Lâo-tsze, though he now occupies the second place in its trinity of “The three Pure or Holy The Tâoism of to-day. Ones.” There is hardly a word in his treatise that savours either of superstition or religion. ”

“ The difficulty in governing the people arises from their having too much knowledge, and therefore he who tries to govern a state by wisdom is a scourge to it, while he who does not try to govern thereby is a blessing. ”

“ They should think their coarse food sweet, their plain clothing beautiful, their poor houses places of rest and their common simple ways sources of enjoyment. There should be a neighbouring state within sight, and the sound of the fowls and dogs should be heard from it to us without interruption, but I would make the people to old age, even to death, have no intercourse with it. ”

“ Nowhere else in his treatise does the nature of Tâo as a method or style of action come out more clearly. It has no positive existence of itself; it is but like the emptiness of a vessel, and the manifestation of it by men requires that they endeavour to free themselves from all self-sufficiency. Whence came it? It does not shock Lâo-tsze to suppose that it had a father, but he cannot tell whose son it is. ”

“ He makes the Tâo prior to heaven and earth, which is a phrase denoting what we often call “nature,” but he does not make it prior to heaven in the higher and immaterial usage of that name. The last sentence of his treatise is:—“It is the Tâo—the way—of Heaven to benefit and not injure; it is the Tâo—the way—of the sage to do and not strive.” ”

“ The two men whose influence has been so great on all the subsequent generations of the Chinese people—Kung-tsze (Confucius) and Lâo-tsze—had at least one interview, in 517 B.C., when the former was in his thirty-fifth year. The conversation between them was interesting. Lâo was in a mocking mood; Kung appears to the greater advantage. If it be true that Confucius, when he was fifty-one years old, visited Lâo-tsze as Chwang-tsze says (in the Thien Yun, the fourteenth of his treatises) , to ask about the Tâo, they must have had more than one interview. ”

“ All things originate from Tâo, conform to Tâo and to Tâo at last they return.”
Some of these representations require modification; but no thoughtful reader of the treatise can fail to be often puzzled by what is said on the point in hand. Julien, indeed, says with truth (p. xiii.) that “it is impossible to take Tâo for the primordial Reason, for the sublime Intelligence, The Tâo
and the
Deity. which has created and governs the world”; but many of Lâo-tsze’s statements are unthinkable if there be not behind the Tâo the unexpressed recognition of a personal creator and ruler. ”

“ It has been doubted whether Lâo-tsze acknowledged the existence of God at all, but modern Tâoism is a system of the wildest polytheism. The science and religion of the West meet from it a most determined opposition. ”

“ Thus Watters (Lâo-tsze, A Study in Chinese Philosophy, p. 45) says:—“In the Tâo Teh King the originator of the universe is referred to under the names Non-Existence, Existence, Nature (Tâo) and various designations—all which, however, represent one idea in various manifestations. It is in all cases Nature (Tâo) which is meant.” This view has been skilfully worked out; but it only hides the scope of “the Venerable Philosopher.” “Nature” cannot be accepted as a translation of Tâo. That character was, primarily, the symbol of a way, road or path ”

“ The other meaning of the designation rests on better authority. We find it in the Kiâ Yü, or “Narratives of the Confucian School,” compiled in the 3rd century A.D. from documents said to have been preserved among the descendants of Confucius, and also in the brief history of Lâo-tsze given in the historical records of Sze-ma Ch’ien (about 100 B.C.) . In the latter instance the designation is used by Confucius, and possibly it originated with him. It should be regarded more as an epithet of respect than of years, and is equivalent to “the Venerable Philosopher.” ”