Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/72

 60 CHINESE LITERATURE

this beyond cavil, while at the same time it forms a handy guide to a nearer appreciation of this elusive Tao.

CHUANG Tztf was born in the fourth century B.C., and held a petty official post. " He wrote," says the historian Ssu-ma Ch'ien, "with a view to asperse the Confucian school and to glorify the mysteries of Lao Tzu. ... His teachings are like an overwhelming flood, which spreads at its own sweet will. Consequently, from rulers and ministers downwards, none could apply them to any definite use."

Here we have the key to the triumph of the Tao of Confucius over the Tao of Lao Tzu. The latter was idealistic, the former a practical system for everyday use. And Chuang Tzu was unable to persuade the calculating Chinese nation that by doing nothing, all things would be done. But he bequeathed to posterity a work which, by reason of its marvellous literary beauty, has always held a foremost place. It is also a work of much originality of thought. The writer, it is true, appears chiefly as a disciple insisting upon the principles of a Master. But he has contrived to extend the field, and carry his own speculations into regions never dreamt of by Lao Tzu.

The whole work of Chuang Tzu has not come down to us, neither can all that now passes under his name be regarded as genuine. Alien hands have added, vainly indeed, many passages and several entire chapters. But a sable robe, says the Chinese proverb, cannot be eked out with dogs' tails. Lin Hsi-chung, a brilliant critic of the seventeenth century, to whose edition all students should turn, has shown with unerring touch where the lion left off and the jackals began.

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