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Taoism

(TAO-KIAO.)Taoism is the second of the three state religions (

San-kiao

) of China.This religion is derived from the philosophical doctrines of Lao-tze. "Lao-tze's Taoism",says Legge (Religions of China, 229), "is the exhibition of a way or method of livingwhich men should cultivate as the highest and purest development of their nature".According to De Groot (Religious System of China, IV, p. 66): "Taoism, as the wordindicates, is the Religion of the Tao, a term meaning Path or Way, but denoting in this peculiar case the way, course or movement of the Universe, her processes and methods.In other words, Taoism is the Religion of Heaven and Earth, of the Cosmos, of the Worldor Nature in the broadest sense of these words. Hence we may call it Naturism".Lao-tze, the equivalent to "the Old or Venerable Philosopher" (if taken as a title of respect), or to "Old Boy" (if literally 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" (written in thefourth century A.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". "Nowonder", adds Legge (1. c., pp. 203-4) "that the child should have had white hair, — an'old boy' of about fourscore years!" This date of 604, in accordance with historicaltradition, is not given by Sze-ma Ts'ien in the biography which he devoted to the philosopher in his "She-ki" (Historical Memoirs); if this date be accepted, it is difficult toadmit of the authenticity of the meeting between Lao-tze and Confucius, 500

B.C.

; if thelatter was then fifty-one years old according to Chwang-tze, Lao-tze was then onehundred and four years old.The family name of Lao-tze was Li, his name Eul (meaning "Ear"), his honorary title Pe-yang, and his posthumous name Tan (meaning "Flat-eared"). He was one of the "Sze",recorders, historiographers, keepers of the archives of Lo, the Court of the princes of theChou dynasty. Foreseeing the decay of this dynasty, he gave up his office, and undertook a journey; at the Han-kou Pass, Ho-nan Province, the watchman, Yin Hi, begged him towrite 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 YinHi, he disappeared; the time of the death of the philosopher is not known. Lao-tze had ason Called Tsung who was a general of the Kingdom of Wei and who obtained the grantof 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'iang, King of kiao-si, and, owing to this circumstance, settledwith his family in the Kingdom of Ts'i.This story is too matter of fact and lacks the marvellous legend which should surroundthe person of the chief of a new religion. Legend was provided for. Ko Hung, alreadymentioned, 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 theemotion she felt in seeing a large shooting star. He received from Heaven the vital breath;as he was born in a house whose proprietor was called Li (Pear tree), so he was namedLi". Some authors say that Lao-tze was born before heaven and earth. According toothers, he possessed a pure soul emanated from heaven, He belonged 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 wrote a sensational article, "The Remains of Lao Tzu", to show byvarious 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 inwhich Dr. Chalmers, Dr. Legge, Dr. Edkins, and some other sinologues took part. Theauthenticity of the work has been admitted by most of them. Wylie says (Notes onChinese Literature, new ed., p. 216): "The only work which is known to be truly the production of Lao Keun is the 'Taòu tih king', which has maintained its reputation andsecured a popularity to a certain extent among reading men generally of everydenomination. " Legge writes (Religions of China, p. 203): "No other writing has comedown to us from the pencil of Lâo-tsze, its author", and (Brit. Quart. Rev., July, 1883, p.9): "We know that Lao Tzu wrote the 'Tao Tê Ching'", and (p. 11): "The 'Tao Tê Ching' isa genuine relic of one of the most original minds of the Chinese race, putting his thoughtson record 2400 years ago. " The German E. Faber (China Rev., XIII, 241) says that "thereis little room left for doubts regarding the authenticity of our Canon."Besides the "Tao-teh-king" a good many works treat of Taoism: the "Yin-fu-king-kiai"which professes to be an exposition of the oldest Taoist record in existence; "Ts'ing-tsing-king" (The Book of Purity and Rest); the "T'ai-hsi-king" (Respiration of the Embryo); the"T'ai-shang-Kan-ying-pien" (Tractate of Actions and their Retributions).The chief Taoist philosophers are: Tsou-yuen (400

B. C.

), author of a work on theinfluences of the five ruling elements, influenced by Buddhist doctrines; Kweiku-tze (380

B. C.

), a mystic, astrologer, and fortune-teller; Ho-kwan-tze (325-298

B.C.

), an orthodoxConfucianist when writing on jurisprudence, a Taoist in other writings; Chwang-tze (330

B. C.

), the author of the "Nan-hua" classic, the adversary to Mencius, and according toEitel "the most original thinker China ever produced"; Shi-tze (280

B. C.

), a Taoist writer,influenced by the heterodox philosopher, Yang-chu (450

B. C.

), the Apostle of Selfishness;the statesman Han-feitze (250

B. C.

); Liu-ngan or Hwai-nan-tze (died 112

B. C.

), acosmogonist. But the first disciples of Lao-tze were Kang-sang-tze (570-543

B. C.

), thefirst expositor of Taoism as a distinct system, the sceptic Li-tze (500

B. C.

), and Wen-tze(500

B. C.

). The historian Sze-ma-ts'ien speaking of Chwang-tze says: "He wrote with aview to asperse the Confucian school and to glorify the mysteries of Lao Tze. . . Histeachings are like an overwhelming flood, which spreads at its own sweet will.Consequently, from rulers and ministers downwards, none could apply them to anydefinite use." Giles (Chinese Literature, 60) concludes from this passage: "Here we havethe key to the triumph of the Tao of Confucius over the Tao of Lao Tze. The latter wasidealistic, the former a practical system for every-day use."

As De Groot observes (l. s. c., IV, 67): "Taoism being fundamentally a religion of theCosmos and its subdivisions, old Chinese Cosmogony is its Theogony. It conceives theUniverse as one large organism of powers and influences, a living 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 thechief depositories. These two souls produce the four seasons, and the phenomena 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 attributes to man two souls:1.The

shen

, or immaterial soul, emanates from the ethereal, celestial part of theCosmos, and consists of

yang

substance. When operating actively in the livinghuman body, it is called

k'i

or 'breath', and

kwun

; 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 theUniverse, and is formed of

yin

substance. In living man it operates under the nameof

p'oh

and on his death it returns to the Earth" (De Groot, IV, p. 5).Thus the

kwei

is buried with the man and the

shen

lingers about the tomb. Marking thedistinction between the two souls, there existed in the legendary period, according to the"Li-ki", a sacrificial worship to each soul separately: the

hwun

k'i

returns to heaven,the

p'oh

returns to earth. These two souls are composite; in fact all the viscera have a particular

shen

. "There are medical authors who ascribe to man an indefinite number of souls or soul-parts, or, as they express. it, a hundred

shen

. Those souls, they say, shift inthe body according to the age of the owner; so, e. g. when he is 25, 31, 68 or 74, andolder they dwell in his forehead, so that it is then very dangerous to have boils or ulcersthere, because effusion of the blood would entail death. At other times of life they nestleunder the feet or in other parts and limbs, and only in the 21st, 38th, 41st, and 50th yearsof life they are distributed equally through the body, so that open abscesses, wherever they appear, do not heal then at all. Such pathologic nonsense regulates, of course,medical practice to a high degree" (Do Groot, IV, p. 75). The liver, the lungs, and thekidneys correspond to the spring, to the autumn, to the winter, as well as to the east, thewest, and the north. The soul may be extracted from a living man; the body may still livewhen left by the soul, for instance during sleep; the soul of a dead man may be reborninto other bodies. Ghosts may enter into relation with the living, not only in dreams, butthey may take revenge on their enemies.At the head of the Taoist Pantheon is a trinity of persons:1.

Yuen-shi-t'ien-tsun

, "the honoured one of heaven, first in time", residing in "the jade-stone region", who created the three worlds;2.

Ling-pan-t'ien-tsun

, "the honored one of heaven who is valued and powerful",residing in the "upper pure region", collector of the sacred books, calculator of thesuccession of time, and the regulator of the two principles

yin

and

yang

;3.Lao-tze himself, who exposed to mankind the doctrines uttered by the first personin the trinity and collected in the form of books by the second.