predecessors, which, however, are observed only by the mandarins. So numerous
are the festivals that were they celebrated everywhere by everybody there would
be neither “time” nor “hands” for the works of agriculture or commerce, trade,
science, or the arts.
We pass on to a brief account of
TAOUISM.The founder of Taouism, the doctrine of Tao, or Reason, was a celebrated
philosopher named Lao-tsze, who was born in the third year of the Emperor
Ting-wang, of the Chow dynasty (B.C. 604) in the state of Tseu, now known as
Hoo-pih and Hoo-nan. He preceded Confucius by half a century. His family
name was Le, or Plum, and his youthful name, Urh, or Ear, in allusion to the
exceptional size of his “auricular appendages.” The events of his career are so
obscured in an atmosphere of legend and fable, created by admiring disciples,
that it is difficult to get at any authentic particulars; but he seems to have been an
assiduous student, and the historian or chronologist of a king of the Chow
dynasty. Visiting, about B.C. 600, the western parts of China, he gained there a
knowledge of the system of Fo, or Buddha, and soon afterwards began to
develope his own religious teaching. So great was his fame that Confucius went
to see him; but the interview was hardly of the character that might have been
expected when two religious philosophers met. Lao-tsze reproached the younger
sage with pride and ostentation and vanity, affirming that philosophers loved
retirement and seclusion, and made no boast of virtue and knowledge. It speaks
well for the good nature of Confucius that he replied to this tirade by highly
commending Lao-tsze to his followers, and describing him as a dragon soaring
to the clouds of Heaven, unsurpassed and unsurpassable.
Lao-tsze inquired of Confucius if he had discovered the Taou, the “path” or
“reason” by which Heaven acts, and was informed that the philosopher had
searched for it unsuccessfully. Lao-tsze replied that the wealthy dismissed their
friends with presents, and sages theirs with good counsel; and that for himself,
he humbly claimed to be thought a sage—an indirect way of advising Confucius
to continue his quest of the Taou. Retiring to Han-kwan, he wrote there his