A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.] eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 552 pages of information about A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.].

A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.] eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 552 pages of information about A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.].

“’I have heard that a man of nobility does not flee from society, but seeks to gain fame; a man of wisdom does not swim against the current, but seeks to earn repute.  You, however, despise the achievements of civilization and culture; you have no regard for the splendour of philanthropy and justice; you squander your powers here in the wilderness and neglect ordered relations between man....’”

Frequently Master Mysticus and Mr. Rationalist were united in a single person.  Thus, Shih Ch’ung wrote in an essay on himself: 

“In my youth I had great ambition and wanted to stand out above the multitude.  Thus it happened that at a little over twenty years of age I was already a court official; I remained in the service for twenty-five years.  When I was fifty I had to give up my post because of an unfortunate occurrence....  The older I became, the more I appreciated the freedom I had acquired; and as I loved forest and plain, I retired to my villa.  When I built this villa, a long embankment formed the boundary behind it; in front the prospect extended over a clear canal; all around grew countless cypresses, and flowing water meandered round the house.  There were pools there, and outlook towers; I bred birds and fishes.  In my harem there were always good musicians who played dance tunes.  When I went out I enjoyed nature or hunted birds and fished.  When I came home, I enjoyed playing the lute or reading; I also liked to concoct an elixir of life and to take breathing exercises,[3] because I did not want to die, but wanted one day to lift myself to the skies, like an immortal genius.  Suddenly I was drawn back into the official career, and became once more one of the dignitaries of the Emperor.”

    [3] Both Taoist practices.

Thus Lao Tzu’s individualist and anarchist doctrine was not suited to form the basis of a general Chinese social order, and its employment in support of dictatorship was certainly not in the spirit of Lao Tzu.  Throughout history, however, Taoism remained the philosophic attitude of individuals of the highest circle of society; its real doctrine never became popularly accepted; for the strong feeling for nature that distinguishes the Chinese, and their reluctance to interfere in the sanctified order of nature by technical and other deliberate acts, was not actually a result of Lao Tzu’s teaching, but one of the fundamentals from which his ideas started.

If the date assigned to Lao Tzu by present-day research (the fourth instead of the sixth century B.C.) is correct, he was more or less contemporary with Chuang Tzu, who was probably the most gifted poet among the Chinese philosophers and Taoists.  A thin thread extends from them as far as the fourth century A.D.:  Huai-nan Tzu, Chung-ch’ang T’ung, Yuean Chi (210-263), Liu Ling (221-300), and T’ao Ch’ien (365-427), are some of the most eminent names of Taoist philosophers.  After that the stream of original thought dried up, and we rarely find a new idea among

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A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.] from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.