Page:China- Its State and Prospects.djvu/225

Rh the Shang dynasty, B. C. 1407; when from the regions of great purity and eternal reason, a subtle fluid de- scended, from the superior principle of nature, and was transformed into a dark yellow substance, about the size of a pill; which, rolling into the mouth of a pearly damsel, while she was asleep, caused her to conceive: the child was not born till eighty-one years afterwards, and on his appearance was grey headed: hence he was called Laou-tsze, the venerable one. The second appearance of this wonderful individual was in the person of Laou-tan, who was visited by Confucius, B. C. 500. A third appearance occurred in the third year of Kaou-tsoo, of the Tang dynasty, A. D. 623, when a man of Shan-se province reported, that on a certain hill he had seen an old man in white raiment, who said, "Go and tell the emperor, that I am Laou-keun, his ancestor." Upon which the emperor ordered a temple to be built for him.

The votaries of this sect talk a great deal about virtue, and profess to promote it by abstraction from the world, and the repression of desire: this latter they imagine is to be effected by eating their spirits, or stifling their breath, for a length of time. They say, that all depends on the subjection of the heart; and therefore mortify every feeling, in order to attain perfect virtue, which is, insensibility. Hence some of them wander away to the tops of mountains to cultivate reason, and renounce all intercourse with men, that their studies may not be interrupted. They affect to despise wealth, fame, and posterity; urging, that at death all these distinctions and advantages terminate, and the labour bestowed upon them is thrown away.

Much of their attention is taken up with the study