Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/503

 TAOISM

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TAOISM

development of their nature". According to De Groot (Religious System of China, IV, p. 66) : "Taoism, as the word indicates, is the Rehgion of the Tao, a term meaning Path or Way, but denoting in this pecuhar case the way, course or movement of the Universe, her processes and methods. In other words, Taoism is the Rehgion of Heaven and Earth, of the Cosmos, of the World or Nature in the broadest sense of these words. Hence we may call it Na- turism".

Lao-tze, the equivalent to "the Old or Venerable Philosopher" (if taken as a title of respect), or to "Old Boy" (if hterally translated), was born in the third year of Ting Wang, Prince of Chou, i. e. in 604, at K'io-jin, in the Kingdom of Ts'u, to-day Ho-nan Province. The legend given by Ko Hung in his "Record of Spirits and Immortals" (wTitten in the fourth century .\.D.), says that " he was not born till his mother had carried him in her womb seventy-two years or, according to some accounts, eighty-one years". "No wonder", adds Legge (1. c, pp. 203-4), "that the child should have had white hair, — an 'old boy' of aVjout fourscore years"! This date of 604, in accordance with historical tradition, is not given by Sze-ma Ts'ien in the biography which he devoted to the philosopher in his "She-ki" (Historical Mem- oirs); if this date be accepted, it is difficult to admit of the authenticity of the meeting between Lao-tze and Confucius, 500 b.c; if the latter was then fifty- one years old according to Chwang-tze, Lao-tze was then one hundred and four years old. The family name of Lao-tze was Li, his name Eul (meaning "Ear"), his honorary title Pe-yang, and his posthu- mous name Tan (meaning "Flat-eared"). He was one of the "Sze", recorders, historiographers, keep- ers of the archives of Lo, the Court of the princes of the Chou dynasty. Foreseeing the decay of this dynasty, he ga\e up his office, and imdertook a journey; at the Han-kou Pa,ss, Ho-nan Province, the watchman, Yin Hi, begged him to write his thoughts for his own instruction before he retired from the world; consequently, Lao-tze wrote his work in two parts in the Tao and the Te, and having entrusted it to Yin Hi, he disappeared; the time of the death of the philosopher is not known. Lao-tze had a son called Tsung who was a general of the Kingdom of Wei and who obtained the grant of land at Twan-kan. His son named Chu had himself a child Kung; Hia, grandson of Kung, was an official under Emperor Hiao-wen-ti, of the Han dynasty. Kiai, son of Hia, became a minister of K'iaug, King of Kiao-si, and, owing to this circumstance, .settled with his family in the Kingdom of Ts'i.

This story is too matter of fact and lacks the mar- vellous legend which should surround the person of the chief of a new religion. Legend was provided for. Ko Hung, already mentioned, had placed the legend of Lao-tze at the beginning of the " Shon-sion-ch'- wan" (Records of Spirits and Immortals), and he says: "His mother carried him after the emotion she felt in seeing a large shooting si sir. He received from Heaven the vital breath; as he was born in a house whose proprietor was called Li (Pear tree), so he was named Li ". Some authors say that Lao-tze was born before heaven and earth. According to others, he

Eossessed a pure soul emanated from heaven. He elonged to the class of .spirits and gods. The chief work of Lao-tze, in fact the only one which has been ascribed to him with some probability, is the "Tao-teh-king". In the "China Review" (March- April, 1886), Dr. Herbert A Giles WTote a sensational article, "The Remains of Lao Tzu", to show by vari- ous arguments that the "Tao-teh-king" is a spurious work and that its now spurious portions have been mostly mistranslated. It was the starting-point of a controversy in which Dr. C'halmers, Dr. I^egge, Dr. Edkina, and some other sinologues took part. The

authenticity of the work has been admitted by most of them. Wyhe says (Notes on Chinese Litera- ture, new ed., p. 216): "The only work which is known to be truly the production of Lao Keun is the 'Ta6u tih king', which has maintained its reputation and secured a popularity to a certain extent among reading men generally of every denomination." Legge writes (Rehgions of China, p. 203): "No other writing has come down to us from the pencil of Lao-tsze, its author", and (Brit, t^uart. Rev., July, 1883, p. 9): "We know that Lao Tzu wrote the 'Tao Te Ching'", and (p. 11): "The 'Tao Te Ching' is a genuine relic of one of the most original minds of the Chinese race, putting his thoughts on record 2400 years ago." The German E. Faber (China Rev., XIII, 241) says that "there is httle room left for doubts regarding the authenticity of our Canon."

Besides the "Tao-teh-king", a good many works treat of Taoism: the " Yin-f u-king-kiai" which pro- fesses to be an exposition of the oldest Taoist record in existence; "Ts'ing-tsing-king" (The Book of Pur- ity and Rest); the "T'ai-hsi-king" (Respiration of the Embryo); the "T'ai-shang-Kan-ying-pien" (Trac- tate of Actions and their Retributions). The chief Taoist philosophers are: Tsou-yuen (400 B. c), author of a work on the influences of the five ruling elements, influenced by Buddhist doctrines; Kwei- ku-tze (380 B. c), a mystic, astrologer, and fortune- teller; Ho-kwan-tze (32r>-29S b. c), an orthodox Confucianist when writing on jurisprudence, a Taoist in other WTitings; Chwang-tze (330 B. c), the author of the "Nan-hua" classic, the adversary to Mencius, and according to Eitel "the most original thinker China ever produced"; Shi-tze (280 B. c), a Taoist writer, influenced by the heterodox philosopher, Yang-chu (4.50 B. c), the Apostle of Selfishness; the statesman Han-fei- tze (250 B. c); Liu-ngan or Hwai-nan-tze (d. 112 B. c), a cosmogonist. But the first disciples of Lao- tze were Kang-sang-tze (570-543 B. c), the first expositor of Taoism as a distinct system, the sceptic Li-tze (.500 B. c), and Wen-tze (500 b. c). The his- torian Sze-ma-ts'ien speaking of Chwang-tze says: "He wrote with a view to asperse the Confucian school and to glorify the mysteries of Lao Tze. . . His teachings are hke an overwhelming flood, which spreads at- its own sweet will. Consequently, from rulers and ministers downwards, none could apply them to any definite use." Giles (Chinese Literature, 60) concludes from this passage: "Here we have the key to the triumph of the Tao of Confucius over the Tao of Lao Tze. The latter was idealistic, the former a practical system for every-day use."

As De Groot obser\'cs (1. s. c, IV, 67): "Taoism being fundamentally a rehgion of the Cosmos and its subdivisions, old Chinese Cosmogony is its Theogony. It conceives the Universe as one large organism of powers and influences, a Uving machine, the core of which is the Great Ultimate Principle or T'ai-kih, comprising the two cosmic Breaths or Souls, known as the Yang and the Yin, of which, respectively, Heaven and Earth are the chief depositories. These two souls produce the four sea.sons, and the phenom- ena of Nature represented by the lineal figures called kwa". In fact the Yang and the Yin produce by the power of their co-operation all that exists, man included. Ancient Chinese philosophy attrib- utes to man two souls: (1) the shcn, or immaterial soul, emanates from the ethereal, celestial part of the Cosmos, and consists of yang substance. When oper- ating actively in the hving human body, it is called k'i or 'breath', and Au)u«; when separated from it after death, it lives as a refulgent spirit, styled ming. (2) The kwei, the material, substantial soul, emanates from the terrestrial part of the Universe, and is formed of yin substance. In living man it operates under the name of p'oh and on his death it returns to