Page:Horæ Sinicæ, Translations from the Popular Literature of the Chinese (horsinictran00morrrich, Morrison, 1812).djvu/68

58 was Si, his name Urh, his letter Pe-yang, his title after death Tan. He published two works called Tao-te, [reason and virtue.]

Further, on examining the Shing-ki-king, [holy record of Sao-kiun, or Tao, the venerable prince,] it is found stated thus:—Tai-shang-lao-kiun, [the great, exalted, and venerable prince,] dwelt at the palace Tai-tsing, [original purity.] He was the ancestor of original air, [or spirit.] He was the lord of the root and origin of heaven and earth, and dwelt in the midst of extreme silence and perfect emptiness, before hte very first and the very commencement. It was he, and he only, who repeatedly, universally, and constantly fostered the air, and dissolved the essence of man; who spread out the heavens and the earth, and superintended their formations and destructions in an incalculable series. He transformed his person, and went every where in this world of sand and dust. He ascended on high, and calculated to the utmost bounds of succeeding ages, after the spreading abroad of the heavens and earth. He ob-