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Rh Chuang and Lieh, as well as their own disquisitions, are chiefly devoted to ethics. The nature of their discussions might naturally have been considered sufficient to protect the teachings of Lao Tzǔ from seizure by Chang Tao-ling of the Han dynasty and the Emperor T'ai Tsung of the T'ang dynasty, as a basis upon which a structure of magic could be built and a religion established. The only reasonable explanation of their having been unable to do so is, that since it was impossible to harmonize the magical arts of Chang with the teachings of the Conservative School represented by Confucius, the only possible resort of the Emperor T'ai Tsung in founding a nationalistic religion was to Lao Tzǔ whose teachings had been expressed in such ambiguous terms that they admitted of many differing interpretations. The Conservatives stood for the existing order, whereas a new religion demanded changes. T'ai Tsung gave all due respect to the Conservative class which rallied to his support as Emperor and appreciated his patronage of orthodox literature and art. At the same time his profound belief in the religious teachings of Buddhism impelled him to borrow therefrom all the essential principles which should be worked over into a new nationalistic religion for China, based upon Liberalism, while at the same time it ran no risk of conflicting with Confucian Conservatism for the reason that both had a common origin in the ancient civilization of China.

From the foregoing it will be seen that Taoism, as developed into a national religion in the T'ang dynasty, had a very mixed origin. By adopting Lao Tzǔ as the philosophic founder of this religion, Taoism selected the ancient sayings found in the Tao Teh King as capable of interpretation in support of magical arts and alchemy, and as containing nothing which could be used against the incorporation of these grosser elements into the new religion. The amplifications of the teaching of Lao Tzǔ by Chuang Tzǔ, Lieh Tzii, Han Fel Tzǔ and Huai-nan Tzǔ, which are accepted as standard interpretations of his