The simple way

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THE BOOK OF THE SIMPLE WAY

THE SIMPLE WAY

LAOTZE

(THE 'OLD BOY')

A NEW TRANSLATION OF THE TAO-TEH-KING
WITH INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY

BY

WALTER CORN OLD, M.K.A.S.

THIRD EDITION

LONDON

WILLIAM RIDER & SON, LTD.

CATHEDRAL HOUSE, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G.

1913

WW

First Edition . . • Septimhtr 1904
Popular Edition . . Augmt 1905
Third Edition . . • February 1913

PREFACE

TO THE THIRD EDITION

In introducing to the public the Third Edition of
Laotze's " Simple Way," the writer begs to express
his appreciation of the favourable reception accorded
to this translation of the celebrated work of the Chinese
sage, and desires to take the opportunity to offer a few
brief comments on the precise meaning of the title of
the work, which appears to have led in certain instances
to some misapprehension.

A great deal has been heard of late years about the
Simple Life, which everybody appears to advocate and
nobody follows out. Some laudable attempts have
been made to get into closer touch with Nature by
a few enthusiasts who have sought to extort her secret
by systematically prodding her bare body with dibble,
fork and spade, displaying thus considerable liveliness
and not a little simplicity, but wholly failing either to
make life simple or to attain to the simple life. This
was inevitable ; for the Way, the Truth and the Life
that are simple are not to be compassed by Small
Holdings and a Manual of Husbandry.

The House-bondman may tend the root of our bodily
needs, but he does not touch the complex of our higher
and wider life.

Yet it is in relation to our principles of life rather
than our common activities that the Simple Life gains
its greatest meaning and value. The Simple Life is

vi LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

not always the Simple Way. Indeed it is no Way at
all if it does not lead to the end in view ; and that end,
I take it, is the ennobhng of individual character, the
raising of our standards of equity, and the strengthen-
ing of the bonds of fellowship on the common basis of
our humanity.

If the lone furrow leads to this end, let us follow it
out to its length. If the potato-patch embraces the
higher needs of the race, by all means let us cultivate
it. But I think that all such eiforts may be more
properly regarded as effects rather than causes of in-
dividual evolution, and as applied to the race at large
they will be found to play none but an insignificant
part in a true system of economics. If they loom large
in the imagination of certain proteidian enthusiasts
and social reformers, ii is chiefly from lack of a proper
perspective. Life is not rendered simple by a studious
regard to the time and nature of our meals. If men eat
because they are hungry they should eat only when
they are hungry and take only such foods as can answer
to the challenge of the sentinel palate. It is possible
to imagine the alimentary canal as possessing the
significance of a fire escape, and even to invest it with
the merits of a spiritual mediator by an over strict
regard to the mathematics of nutritive values, and yet
at the same time to render life more complex than we
already find it. That salvation does not lie that way
is evident from the teaching of Christ. That it is not
the Tao is certain, for as Laotze says : Why all this
straining after effect .? The swan is white without daily
washing itself and the raven does not renew its colour
daily. Yet the original integrity of black and white is
beyond the reach of argument.

The original simplicity advocated by Laotze is not to
be confounded with primitive ignorance to which it
stands in apposition as intuition does to instinct — the

PREFACE vii

extreme poles of the scale of mental evolution. It is
not concerned with eifects so much as causes and yet
more intimately with principles. It may be regarded
as the state of mind to which a man attains after pass-
ing through the zero of complete self-effacement, from
which he is able to perceive that unity in diversity, that
underlying identity of things, which Laotze says "only
the truly wise can understand."

I venture this preface partly in self-defence, but
chiefly for the benefit of my readers. The modern
tendency to regard the externals of life as of paramount
importance and to invest them with a significance they
do not really possess in relation to the nature and needs
of that permanent part of us which we call the Spiritual
Man, has led many to confuse the complex with the
simple and to make the whole wellrbeing of man to
consist in physical culture. They make this the business
of their lives rather than the cultivation of those
intellectual and spiritual faculties which are essential
to the evolving spiritual entity. That this is not the
Tao-teh the reader of these pages will readily discover.

That the ancient doctrine of the Tao has exercised a
great influence upon educated minds in all ages none
who are acquainted with the history of Taoism can
doubt. That it still continues to extend its sway
over contemporary thought is evident from the recep-
tion which has been accorded to the present exposition
among numerous others. Its defects are those due to
lack of knowledge rather than of zeal, and my better-
informed readers will doubtless supply my deficiency
and supplement my efforts, for which service I tender
my thanks in advance.

W. G. O.

LoNDONj 1913.

CONTENTS

Preface ,

PAGE
V

Introduction

CHAPTEB

I. Marking out the Path

3

2S

II.

Self-perfection .

27

III.

Resting the People

29

IV.

The Causeless

30

V.

The Value of Nothing

31

VI.

The Origin of Things

• 33

VII.

Hiding the Light

34

VIII.

The Easy Nature

35

IX.

Making Things Equal

37

X.

What is Possible

38

XI.

The Use of Nothing

40

XII.

Shutting the Doors

41

XIII.

Preventing a Fall

42

XIV.

Praising the Void

44

XV.

Exhibiting Virtue

46

XVI.

Going Home

48

XVII.
CVIII.

Being Natural .
Patching up

SI

52

XIX.

Reverting to Nature

■ 54

XX.

Holding Aloof .

55

XXI.

The Empty Source

51

XXII.

Increasing the Small
ix

59

LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

CHAPTER

XXIII.

Non-Identification . . . .

XXIV.

Undesirable Honours .

XXV.

Apprehending the Void

XXVI.

The Virtue of Gravity

XXVII.

The Use of Skill

XXVIII.

Becoming a Child

XXIX.

Non-Action .

XXX.

Declining from Strife

XXXI.

Ceasing from War

XXXII.

Intelligent Virtue

XXXIII.

Discerning Virtue

XXXIV.

The Perfect Condition

XXXV.

The Virtue of Bounty

XXXVI.

The Covert Agreement

XXXVII.

The Art of Government

XXXVIII.

Of Virtue

XXXIX.

Tracing the Source .

XL.

Resigning Work

XLI.

Like and Unlike

XLIL

The Changes of Tao .

XLIII.

Unlimited Usefulness

XLIV.

Standing Still

XLV.

Indefinite Virtue

XLVI.

Curbing Desire

XLVII.

Looking Abroad

XLVIII.

The Distress of Knowledge

XLIX.

The Virtue of Concession

L.

The Value of Life

LI.

Cherishing Virtue

LII.

Going Back to the Cause

CONTENTS

xi

CHAPTER

LIII. Increasing Evidence .

LIV. The Root and its Branches

LV. The Wonderful Harmony

LVI. The Mysterious Virtue

LVII. The Genuine Government

LVIII. Letting Others Reform Themselves

LIX. Preserving the Tao

LX. Filling the Throne

LXI. The Virtue of Humility

LXn. Practical Tao

LXni. Forethought .

LXIV. Guarding the Small .

LXV. Simple Virtue

LXVI. Going Behind .

LXVII. Three Precious Things

LXVIII. Imitating Heaven

LXIX. The Use of Supreme Virtue

LXX. The Difficult Recognition

LXXI. The Disease of Knowing

LXXII. Loving Oneself

LXXIII. Freedom of Action

LXXIV. The Fault of Coercion

LXXV. The Evil of Avarice .

LXXVI. The Danger of Strength

LXXVII. The Tao of Heaven .

LXXVIII. Accepting the Truth .

LXXIX. Keeping One's Bond

LXXX. Standing Alone

LXXXI. The Evidence of Simplicity
Conclusion . •

PANTHEOS

There is a Power Divine within the Heart of Things,
Which circumvents the universe of worlds, and brings
The Soul of all created things to final good j
Which, ages gone, did take existence where it stood,
And slowly fashion'd it to something pure and fair,— <
Though good in their beginnings all creations were;
Yet growing better still, and last of all supreme,
TK intense superlative of Natures pure extreme.
This Power divine is bodied forth in him whose soul.
Reflecting Good itself, doth comprehend the whole
Of less perfected things, wherein the Light divine.
Though hid by darker veil, hath never ceased to shine;
By which all will at length but sure resolvld be
To something good as great, secure as it is free :
Will be resoh/d again, ere Time its course hath run
To where in Being's dawn its circle had begun j
And Earth and errant Man, and Heaven and That divine,
Like fibres of one heart will blend and intertwine.

INTRODUCTION

TO THE PHILOSOPHER AND HIS BOOK
THE TAO TEH

LITTLE or nothing is known in regard to the early
J life of the old philosopher Laotze, but history reports
that he was born in the province of Tchu, in the year
B.C. 604, and he was therefore a contemporary of Buddha,
in India, whose teachings, as reflected in such works as the
Dhammapada, bear a remarkable resemblance to those of
our author. These teachings were at a later date reiterated
by Plato, and still later by the holy Nazarene. Indeed,
all the great world-teachers appear to have enunciated
the doctrine of Simplicity, and to have defined the Path
in very similar language, but in distinct voices ; all of them
in contrast to the spirit of the age, and modified only by
the circumstance of local colouring and inflection.

We find Laotze at an advanced age acting as curator
of the Royal Library of Kao, from which he eventually
retired in order to devote himself to quiet meditation in the
mountains of the Ling-Po. He had hoped thus to pass
at once beyond the circle of his worldly activities, as one
who seeks the quiet and rest of his home after the heat
and toil of the day. But the fame of the philosopher had
gone before him. Among his followers was a guard of
the Kwan Yin Pass. This man looked with jealous eyes

4 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

upon the setting of so great a luminary, and he therefore
importuned the Sage to commit to writing some of his
teachings before retiring into seclusion. Laotze therefore
wrote a book called Tag Teh, to which the Chinese add
the word " king " as a mark of respect. The philosopher
thereafter went his way towards the Pass of Hsien-Ku, and
was no more heard of by mortal man. Such is the simple
history of the only work ascribed to this great and in-
dustrious man, who rightly bears the name of Laotze, the
" Old Philosopher."

Between Laotze and the historian Sze-Ma, from whom
this information is derived, there were many exponents
of the philosophy of the Tao. The chief of these were
Lieh-tze, Chuang-Tze, Hang-Fei, and Hwai-nan-tze. That
the philosophy rapidly spread and cast its influence over
the most learned minds of those days in China, is evident
from the fact that the Imperial Library of Swei contained,
at the end of the sixth century a.d., many copies of Laotze's
work, all largely commentated. Under the patronage of
the Han Dynasty (b.c. 202 to a.d. 263) the followers of
the Tao flourished, and the Emperors themselves openly
expressed their sympathy with the teachings of this school
of thought. Thus King Tai, who began to reign in B.C. 156,
ordered that the philosophy of Laotze should be studied
at the Court, and thereafter the Tao Teh became a classic
throughout the country, receiving the distinctive name of
Tao-Teh-King.

During this period the teachings of Kong-fu-Tze (Con-
fucius) were much neglected, and rivalry sprang up between
the adherents of the two systems of thought, very bitter
criticism passing between them. That the secular teachings
of Confucius ultimately prevailed, does not detract from

INTRODUCTION 5

the inherent virtue of our author's philosophy, but rather
indicates that the tenets of Confucius were better suited to
the more active policy of succeeding rulers, and possibly
also the inability of the masses to appreciate the ultimate
working value of Taoism, or to rightly conceive the sig-
nificance of its abstruse and seemingly paradoxical principles.
Yet the highest truths must ever suffer by popular ex-
pression, seeing that our consciousness is bounded by
relativity, and expressed only by reference to "the pairs
of opposites.'' The sacerdotalism which the philosophy
of Laotze assailed was akin to the Brahmanism of India
at the time of Buddha's appearance, and to that of Roman
Catholicism at the appearance of Luther.

Laotze was already in the winter of life when Confucius
paid him a visit in the year B.C. 517, the old philosopher
being then eighty-seven years of age, and Confucius, who
was born on the i8th December, B.C. 550, at Lu, only
thirty-three years. The celebrated teacher of the Tao Teh
is said to have greatly impressed Confucius, who afterwards
highly esteemed him. It has been said that Laotze visited
India in the course of his many travels, but there seems no
other ground for this statement than the close similarity of
his philosophy to the principles of the Vedanta, and that
of his ethical teachings to the contemporary doctrines of
Buddha. It is to Chuang-Tze that we owe the record of
the teachings of Laotze, as to Men-Tze we are indebted for
the records of Confucius. But to neither, it would seem,
do we owe the presentation of the pure doctrine of either
of these great teachers ; for Chuang-Tze and Men-Tze, the
contemporary exponents of the two systems of thought,
were very bitter enemies, and strong expressions of con-
tumely are known to have passed between them and their

6 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

respective followers. On the other hand, it is fairly evident
that Laotze and Kong-fu-Tze were good friends, and at most
not far divided upon essential points.

The Rev. Aubrey Moore, in his notes to the translation
of the Writings of Chuang-Tze, says : —

" By the time of Chuang-Tze, some two or three centuries
after Laotze, Confucianism had become to some extent the
established religion of China, and Taoism, like Republican-
ism in the days of the Roman Empire, became a mere
opposition de salon. Under such circumstances the antagon-
ism between the representatives of Laotze and Confucius
would proportionately increase."

The teachings of Confucius were essentially utilitarian,
capable of very successful application to political, social,
and moral questions, but containing little or nothing con-
cerning the nature, origin, and destiny of the human soul.
This was left to the school of mystical philosophy called
the Taotze, under the leadership of Chuang-Tze. That
the teachings of Confucius were not sufficient for the more
metaphysical thinkers of that day in China is evident from
the fact that Taoism successfully vied with Confucianism
for a very long time ; and further, the subsequent introduc-
tion and wide acceptance of Buddhism shows that the
spiritual side of Confucianism was inadequate to the needs
of a vast multitude of people.

However, Taoism was never a popular or representative
national religion, and did not succeed further than to secure
the patronage of some few Emperors, such as Wang-Tai,
whose name is erased from the sacred records of the
Confucians, and the adherence of a minor portion of the
nation. ^ The ancient Shintoism has exerted an influence
greater in every way than either the teaching of Laotze or

INTRODUCTION 7

that of Confucius upon the Chinese as a nation, and the
reason for this is not far to seek, for it needs only a
presentation of some of the leading tenets of the Taotze
to convince one that they would not long survive in the
estimation of successive rulers with ever-increasing worldly '
ambitions. It is not until the eleventh century, and after
the introduction of Buddhism into China, that we find
Taoism forming the basis of a definite religious system
with monasteries and schools, priests and acolytes, and
all the ritual of an ecclesiastical order under the rulership
of the Tsung Dynasty. Previously, it bore only the marks
of an ethical philosophy, and necessarily the crystaUisation
of the doctrine, together with the "bells and pomegranates"
and other embroidery of the plain vesture, must be regarded
as signs of a rapid degeneration in its votaries rather than
as a reflection upon the tendency of the pure doctrine itself,
which, as we shall hereafter see, was opposed to the religious
ritual in all its forms. For Laotze there was but one religion,
the Way of Heaven (Tao Tien), and its expression was
spontaneous as between the individual and Nature,) like
" the prattle of a child in the arms of its mother."

Before touching upon controversial points contained in
the present work, it will be expedient to review some of the
leading tenets of the doctrine of the Tao Teh, as revealed
in the writings of Chuang-Tze.^

"Tao," a term which is said to be equivalent to the
Sanskrit Eodh (wisdom or enlightenment), and used by
the Chinese Buddhists to express that state, is among
the Taotze a mystical term having a twofold significance.
It is at once the Supreme Reason, the Logos, and Nature

' The Writings of Chuang- Tze. Trans. H. A. Giles, London.
Quaritch, 1889.

8 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

the subject of reason ; the Alpha and Omega of all things,
representing the " diversity in unity of nature, and the unity
in diversity of God."

Here, at the outset, we are faced with the antinomial
and paradoxical element common to all mystical systems,
and more than usually prevalent in pantheistic conceptions
sucb as Taoism is said to be. Yet this unity and diversity
are one, and that One is Tao, and Tao is greater than God
and greater than Nature, for in Tao both God and Nature
are as one.

" Before Heaven was, Tao was. Spiritual things draw
their spirituality therefrom, while the universe became (by
it) what we behold it now. To Tao the zenith is not high
nor the nadir low. No point in time is long ago, nor by
lapse of ages has It grown old."

Laotze makes a distinction between the Supreme Source
of all things — Tao the ineffable, and Nature the mother of
all things. Tao, the essence of the Universal Spirit, self-
existent, uncreate and eternal, the source of all creations
and of all worlds, as of the gods who made and govern
them, " is by nature One," says Laotze.

" One and universal is Tao, but the first has produced
a second and the second a third, and these three are all
things. In vain may your senses enquire concerning all
these ; your reason alone can frame anything respecting
them, and this will tell you that they are only One." ^

Tao in this sense seems to correspond to the Parabrahm
of the Vedantins, the Ain Suph of the Kabalists, the Athyr
of the Egyptians, and the Monad of the Greeks. Laotze
says : " A man looks upon God as his father and loves

> Book of God, p. 36. E. V. Kenealy.

INTRODUCTION 9

him in like measure. Shall we not then love That which
is greater than God?" Hence it appears that in the
conception of Laotze, Tao is not God, nor Nature, but
comprehends both God and Nature, being the Supreme
Essence of both Spirit and Substance. The idea of this
universal and unchangeable Essence is not better conveyed,
perhaps, than in the lines of Swinburne : —

" I am that which began ;
Out of me the years roll,
Out of me God and Man,
I am equal and whole ;
God changes and man, and the form of them bodily ; I am
the Soul. "1

Thus says Laotze : —

" There is an Infinite Being which was before Heaven
and Earth. How calm it is, how free ! It lives alone and
changes not. It moves everywhere, but is not affected.
We may regard it as the universal Mother. I know not
its name. I call it Tao."

Totally unlike the doctrine of Confucius based upon
Charity and Huty to one's neighbour, the Taotze recom-
mends the natural expression of inherent virtue, which,
as the attribute of Tao, will flow through the mind and
develop the qualities of the Soul in their original integrity
if its action be unimpeded by the weed-growth of vicious
habits or the veneer of worldly consequence. For all
personal effort, forcing of faculty, striving after a semblance
of that which is already possessed by man through Nature,
all Egoism in short, is regarded by the apostles of the Tao
as so much waste of energy^ leading finally to competi-
tion, strife, self-assertion, dogmatism, interference, tyranny,
diplomacy, and deceit.

' Songs before Sunrise: " Hertha."

10 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

Chuang-Tze, the Idealist, the Ezra of Taoism, and the
Democritus of his day in China, led the reaction against
the materialist teachings of Confucius, and it is to him that
we owe our knowledge, however incomplete, of the doctrine
of Laotze. It is true that his enthusiasm has carried him
far beyond the original statement of the doctrine as em-
bodied in the Tao-teh-king. And although, it is true, this
Philistine has not infrequently called in the Samson of
Utilitarian Philosophy in order to make sport with him,
yet we may console ourselves with the knowledge that the
laugh was not always or finally against the blind man.
The beauty and power of Chuang-Tze's writings, their
quaint cynicism and effusive wit, no less than the subtlety
of metaphor so aptly linked to vigour of expression, have
placed them deservedly in the foremost rank of Chinese
literature. He is at all events faithful in his presentation
of fundamental doctrine, as, for instance, in the concept
of the Essential Unity of things, that of the Union of
Impossibles, that of the integrity of Nature, of Freedom
through restraint of the Senses, of Attainment by Non-
action, and some others of minor importance.

In regard to the doctrine of Essential Unity, Laotze says
that this can only be perceived by "our natural clearness
of sight," for everyone is born in Tao, from Tao. So
Chuang-Tze says : " All that a fish requires is water ; all
that a man wants is Tao." The Union of Impossibles,
ascribed to Plato, is in Taoism the basic doctrine, and is
called by our author "the very axis of Tao." He calls
it the theory of Alternatives, and speaking of the relation
of the Objective and Subjective, he says : —

"When one is born the other dies. When one is possible
tlie other is impossible. When one is affirmative the other

INTRODUCTION ii

is negative. Which being the case, the true Sage rejects
all distinctions of this and that, and takes his refuge in
God, thus placing himself in subjective relations with all
things."

The fact that the changing view-point of the thinker does
not alter the nature of Things-in-themselves constitutes the
main argument for the essential unity of things. Nothing
can be added to or taken from one while that One is all,
and that All one. The objective and subjective worlds
are not separable except in an absolute dualism, and all
appearances to the contrary are only appearances con-
sequent upon the identifying of oneself with one or the
other standpoint. Hence all distinctions cease, and all
conflict is at an end in the recognition of this fundamental
doctrine of the essential unity of things. On this point
Chuang-Tze is profoundly witty.

"Only the truly wise," he says, "understand this principle
of the identity of things. To place oneself in subjective
relations to externals, without consciousness of their ob-
jectivity, this is the Tao. But to wear out one's intellect
in an obstinate adherence to the individuality of things,
not recognising that they are in fact all One, this is called
Three in the Morning. What is that? asked Tzu-Yu.
A keeper of monkeys said in regard to their rations of
nuts that each should have three in the morning and four
at night. But at this the monkeys were very angry, so
the keeper said they should have /our in the morning and
three at night. And with this the monkeys were very well
pleased. The actual number of nuts remained the same,
but there was an adaptation to the likes and dislikes of
those concerned. Such is the principle of putting oneself
into subjective relations with externals. Wherefore the
true Sage, while regarding contraries as identical, adapts
himself to the laws of Heaven, This is called following
two courses at once."

12 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAV

It need not escape our notice, while enjoying the wit
of this illustration, how fitting is the symbolism employed.
The trick of comparing the Confucians to monkeys we may
pass over. But in speaking of the subjective and objective
worlds, what is more fitting than the use of the number
seven as representing the totality of things, the seven worlds
of most ancient conception, with three in the morning and
four at night, and a basic identity in the nature of the
things divided? For it is surely well known that the
number Seven (tsat or tsieh) among all oriental nations,
as with the Kabalists and the Gnostics, represents satisfac-
tion, completeness, totality, perfection. The Triad and
Quaternary, symbolic of Spirit and Matter, are almost
universally associated with the Noumenal and Phenomenal
worlds ; the world of Thought and the world of Things ;
the Subjective and the Objective j with Man, the cogniser
and thinker, in relations with both. The association of
" the morning " with the number Three and of " the night "
with the number Four is an extension, and a familiar one,
of the gnosis. It relates the Spirit to light and Matter to
darkness, and recalls the Two Worlds of the Rosicrucian
philosophy and the all-embracing dogma : Demon est Deus
inversus. So also with the Egyptians, man, compounded
of Soul and body, is represented to be in continual relations
with the two worlds, of which the initiated carry the key.
It is expressed in the symbol + called Ankh, i.e. I, the
Ego, the embodied soul.

The doctrine of Teh, or true virtue, teaches that things
are what they are, not by virtue of the names we give them,
nor by reason of the way in which we view them, but be-
cause of their natural affinities and antagonisms, their
inherent qualities, their place in the scale of creations, and

INTRODUCTION 13

hence by reason of the uses to which they can naturally be
put. < i^ao gives us the true perception of the natures of
things and Teh instructs us as to their uses. And the
right use of things, according to Laotze, lies in the natural
and unimpeded existence of every form of life. Thus the
virtue of a tree is in its growth, the putting forth of leaves
and flowers and fruit. But if a tree be trained to make
much wood and the wood be cut to make a coffin, two
things are by that circumstance lacking in virtue ; the tree,
in that it has ceased to be a tree and become in part a
coffin, and the man, who would hoard up a carcase and
deprive Nature of her dues. The flowers simply live and
grow, and no one denies that they are beautiful. The good
man confers a blessing on the world by merely living.

From such considerations Laotze disagreed with Con-
fucius as to the ultimate utiHty of his doctrine of Charity
and Duty to one's neighbour. ^*Truth does not proclaim
itself," said the Sage, " virtue does not display itself, neither
does reason contend with a man^ perfect courage is not
unyielding, neither is charity displayed in action. Virtue con-
sists in being true to oneself and charity in letting alone."

" By the virtue which is not intentional," says the Sage,
" even the supernatural may be subdued." Therefore
-''Charity and Duty to one's neighbour are not essential
virtues, but simply the accidentals of virtue; and "except
a man be perfect he cannot determine their place,"-' says
Laotze.

So Chuang-Tze writes : —

"All the world knows that the virtue of doing good is
not essential virtue," and, indeed, it is easy to see that
" doing good " may be but the blundering of ignorance, the
inconsequence of vice.

14 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

"The man of virtue remains indifferent to his environ-
ment. His original integrity is undisturbed. His know-
ledge transcends the senses. By virtue of which his heart
expands to enfold all those who come to take refuge there-
in. Going forth without effort, advancing without design,
all things following in his wake. Such is the man of
complete virtue."

Of such an one it is said : —

" He will bury gold in the hillside and cast pearls into
the sea. He will not strive for wealth nor fight for fame.
He will not rejoice in old age, nor grieve over early death.
He will hot take pride in success nor feel remorse in
failure. By gaining a throne he is not enriched, nor can
world-wide empire give him glory. His glory is to know
that all things are One, and life and death but phases of
the same existence."

The contrast of these teachings, resting as they do on
the fundamental concept of the perfection of Tao (as
embracing both the providence of God and the integrity
of Nature) with those of the Confucian school which sought
to enrich the mind of man with rationalism, his life by arts
and sciences, and his morality by civil government, is very
striking, and nowhere more marked than in those passages
in the writings of Taoism which deal with the nature of
true virtue and the end and aim of the virtuous.

Philosophy, it is argued, causes dissensions and fills the
mind with doubts. Arts create appetites which science
cannot satisfy, thus rendering life full of misery and man
an object of pity; while civil government, which hedges
the man about with laws, takes away liberty, destroys free-
dom of action, and undermines the foundations of true
morality. That this was the view of life taken by Laotze
is evident from the following caustic admonition to Con-

INTRODUCTION 15

fucius when discussing with him the favourite theme of
charity and duty to one's neighbour : —

" The chaff from winnowing will blind a man so that he
cannot tell the points of the compass. Mosquitoes will
keep him awake all night with their biting. And just
in the same way this talk of charity and duty to one's
neighbour drives me nearly crazy. Sir, strive to keep the
world in its original simplicity. And as the wind bloweth
wheresoever it listeth, so let virtue establish itself Where-
fore this undue energy, as though searching for a fugitive
with a big drum ? The swan is white without a daily bath ;
the raven is black without daily colouring itself The
original simplicity of black and of white are beyond the
reach of argument. The vista of fame and reputation are
hardly worth enlarging. When the pond dries up and the
fish are left upon dry ground, to moisten them with the
breath or to damp them with a little spittle is not to be
compared with leaving them as at first in their native rivers
and lakes."

No use to regret the state of things "that are not as
they were,'' unless it inspires the hope that some day we
may regain the child-state we have lost. And the belief
that man's departure from the state of pristine purity was
included in the scheme of human evolution — a belief
founded on the mere existence in our day of so many
acquired evils, quite as much as upon the partial realisation
in ourselves of a divine inflection — this belief, I say, in-
spires us with the hope of an eventual restoration of
mankind to its divine heritage. Indeed, it would seem
that the world is even now in a state of transition from
the Tao of native purity to the Tao of acquired virtue,
from a condition of primitive innocence to that of ultimate
perfection.

i6 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

This is the view taken by Edward Carpenter in his
Civilisation : its Cause and Cure, wherein he says : —

" Possibly this is a law of history, that when man has
run through every variety of custom a time comes for him
to be freed from it — that is, he uses it indifferently, accord-
ing to his requirements, and is no longer a slave to it ; all
human practices find their use, and none are forbidden.
At this point, whenever reached, ' morals ' come to an end
and humanity takes their place — that is to say, there is no
longer any code of action ; but the one object of all action
is the deliverance of the human being, the establishment
of equality between oneself and another, the entry into
a new life, which new life, when entered into, will be glad
and perfect, because there is no more any effort or strain
in it ; but it is the recognition of oneself in others eternally."

Laotze taught that the supreme virtue was only to be
recovered by man on his return to the true life. This is
effected by what is called "fasting of the heart," that is, by
self-abstraction, the higher indifference, or non-attachment
to the fruits of action. It is not effected, we are told,
by specific acts of charity, nor by religious austerities,
nor by striving after the great and cherished ideal, but
simply by being oneself, by the spontaneous expression of
one's own nature, and by submission of the will to the laws
of Heaven.

"The pure men of old," he says, "acted as they were
moved, without calculation, not seeking to secure results.
They laid no plans. Therefore, failing, they had no cause
for regret; succeeding, no cause for congratulation." Be-
lieving in the perfection of Nature as comprehended in
God, they did no more than live, breathing with their
whole being in the unrestrained joy of existence, and not
seeking to make the human supplement the divine. Why

INTRODUCTION 17

all this straining after wealth and fame, as if the getting
of these were the end and aim of life? Why, indeed,
except for the satisfaction of those desires which have
become the needs of our existence? Would it not be
easier for us all to take the counsel of Laotze, the advice
of Democritus, and make our wealth to consist in the
reducing of our wants?

" You are going too fast," says Laotze. " You see your
tgg and expect it to crow. You look at your bow and
expect to have broiled duck before you. I will say a few
words at random, and do you listen at random. How does
the Sage seat himself by the Sun and Moon and hold the
universe in his grasp? He blends everything into one
harmonious whole, rejecting the confusion of this and that.
Rank and precedence, which the vulgar prize, the Sage
stolidly ignores. The revolutions of years shall pass him
undisturbed, aeons of ages shall leave his soul unscathed.
The universe itself may pass away, but he will flourish still.
How do I know that the love of hfe is not after all a snare?
How do I know but that he who dreads to die is like a little
child who has lost his way and cannot find his home ? "

This " fasting of the heart," or self-abstraction by means
of which the possession of Tao is effected, is not, as some
may think, the indifference which has its root in self-love,
save in so far as that love of Self includes the welfare of
all living things. The doctrine of Non-action does not in-
culcate bodily withdrawal from the world of action. This,
to certain natures, would be to some extent easy of accom-
pUshment, especially in the direction of abstaining from
action that was uncongenial to them. " It is easy enough
to stand still," says Chuang-Tze ; " the difificulty is to walk
without touching the ground." By this we understand that
it is hard to act except in response to earthly attractions,
c

i8 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

or to make real progress without change of position. It is
in the sense of non-attachment of oneself to the fruits of
action that this doctrine of Non-action is to be understood
and received. It is not by action in relation to oneself
that liberty is obtained and Tao realised. The Vichara
Sagara, an Indian scripture, has this significant passage : '
" By the action of walking a place is reached, but Moksha
(liberation) cannot be reached by any action, since the
Spirit is everywhere present." The doctrine of Renuncia-
tion, as the means of salvation, is familiar to the Christian
mind, and present in every true system of religious thought.
Self-abnegation, as the way to possession, yet not involving
the desire to possess, is thus referred to in the Bhagavad
Gitk (chap. V. 10-14) : —

" He who acts without attachment, dedicating all to the
Supreme Spirit, is not touched by sin, as the lotus leaf
is not wetted by water. . . . The doer of right action,
abandoning its merits, attains rest through devotion. The
doer of wrong action, attached by desire to its fruits,
remains bound. . . . The Spirit creates neither actorship
nor acts in the world, nor yet the connection between action
and its results ; but Nature does so continuously."

By acting while separating oneself from action, and by
reaching the fruit of action without desiring it, man ceases
to identify himself with good or evil in the world and
reaches a state wherein diversity is perceived as unity, and
all distinctions cease. Hope is no more, there is nothing
unfulfilled ; ambition has no aim, for all things are attained j
and effort has no use, for necessity has ceased.

" Then Sorrow ends, for Life and Death have ceased ;
How should lamps flicker when their oil is spent ?
The old sad count is cleat, the new is clean ;
Thus hath a man content." — Light of Asia, Book viii.

INTRODUCTION 19

Then follows the question, Can one attain liberation for
oneself alone ? Laotze says No. Buddha says No. Christ
says No. Not one of all the great Teachers and Saints
ever desired or thought of such beatitude for himself alone.
Indeed, it seems to be a law of spiritual evolution that the
nearer one comes to the attainment of spiritual bliss the
less he desires it for himself alone.

" Can one get Tao so as to have it for one's own ? Your
very body is not your own, how then should Tao be?
If my body is not my own, pray then whose is it? It is
the delegated image of God. Your life is not your own;
it is the delegated harmony of God. Your individuality
is not your own; it is the delegated adaptability of God.
Your posterity is not your own ; it is the delegated exuviae
of God. You move, but know not how. You are at rest,
but know not why. You taste, but know not the cause.
These are the operations of God's laws. How then should
you get Tao to have it for your own ? " ^

We may now turn to the work in hand, the Tao-teh-king
of Laotze. There can be little doubt that any translation
from the Chinese is capable of extreme flexibility and
licence, of which, indeed, the translator must avail himself
if he would rightly render the spirit rather than the letter
of the text ; and the spirit, after all, is the essential thing,
if we follow the teaching of Laotze. It is safe to say that
the more literal the translation may be the more obscure
is its meaning. This is due to the difference of construction
in the two languages, and the great flexibility which attaches
to the use of the Chinese monosyllables (the same word
being constantly used in varying mood) and the entire
absence of any rules of syntax. In addition to these
' The Writing! of Chuang-Tze,

20 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

ordinary difficulties, the particular inflection of many terms
used by our author to express abstract principles has oc-
casioned many differences of translation. To take only
a few instances of words which have been much discussed
among translators, the word Tao (principle) has the sig-
nificance of the Way, and carries a mystical signification
very difficult of direct expression and similar in this respect
to terms used by mystical writers the world over. The
word has been variously expressed by the terms Logos,
Voice, Way, Path, Truth, Reason, etc., and these cannot
be taken Hterally when referring to the Supreme Cause.
Moreover, although it would appear that Tao corresponds
in meaning to such terms as Parabrahm, Ain Suph, etc.,
yet the context will not admit of an uniform adherence to
any of these or their English equivalents. The Logos, or
Word, as expressed in the Chinese, is not rendered by Tsae,
Yen, or Yin, which refer to the ordinary means of expression
by sound, but is compounded of two radicals, Show, which
means head, beginning, source or origin, and Cho, to go
forth upon the path; hence, the First Emanation. "• M.
Abel Remusat said of this word Tao : " It does not seem
capable of proper translation save by the word Logos in the
triple sense of Sovereign Being, the Reason, and the Word."
Mr. Balfour, in his translation of Chuang-Tze, has employed
the word Tao as a synonym of Nature, and though no
doubt his conception of Nature may be of something that
transcends the senses and even the reason, yet it is doubtful
whether he would carry it so far as to include the statement
of Laotze concerning Tao, in the sentence : " It is more
ancient than God." Tao as the Way is understood by

' Tao or Taou is not a radical. It is frequently translated by
"Doctrine."

INTRODUCTION 21

Balfour to mean the Processes, Methods, and Laws of
Nature ; Tao as the Reason is taken to mean the Intelligence
working in all created things, producing, preserving, and
life-giving; while Tao as the Doctrine denotes the true
Doctrine respecting the laws and mysteries of Nature.
Thus the Way, Reason, and Doctrine of Tao are referred
to the effects, causes, and principles embraced in the being
and operations of Nature; and the philosophy of Laotze
is thus held to embody a system of thought which engages
the intuitional, rational, and perceptive powers of the human
mind in regard to the great subject of thought, Man, the
cogniser of Nature.

It is permitted to think, however, that Tao, as embracing
both God and Nature, is altogether beyond the reach of
human thought, certainly beyond definition, and referring
to a state of Being of which we have not the remotest
logical conception, and possibly only the vaguest intuitive
apperception. By the use of the scientific imagination we
may possibly extend our conception of the operations of
Nature until it assumes the attributes of Deity ; and in all,
and through all, and around all is God — the Essence, the
Life, the Intelligence — working, breathing, illuminating,
present in every operation ; scintillating in the very minds
that think these things, making their conception possible.
For whatever we may predicate of God or of Nature, above,
around, below, within, beyond all is that, the ineffable and
inscrutable Tao. The term seems rather to be the equiva-
lent of the mystical term Sat, of the Vedantin philosophy,
used to designate the superlative state of Pure Being, itself
unrelated while comprehending all relations.

The word Teh (virtue) is understood to be the equivalent
of the Buddhistic term Dharma, as being the mode of

22 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

expression proper to Tao in its manifestations ; its true
meaning is conveyed in the words " virtue " and " use," the
central idea being that of proprium, that which is proper to
the nature of a being or thing, apart from the accidents of
human polity, custom, and usage.

Tien is a word frequently used by Laotze to designate
Heaven as a state of being, and also in reference to the
Deity, as in our own phraseology. So by the phrase Tao
Tien we may understand the Law of Divine Being, literally
the Way (Path or cleavage) of Heaven. By Tien Teh we
connote the Divine Operation, literally "Heaven-virtue,"
the virtue of everything being in its use. As to the phrase
Tao TeA, which constitutes the title of this book by Laotze,
we may use either the Law of Virtue, Path of Virtue, or
any other phrase which connote the ideas of God and
Nature and their operations in relation to man. The title
after all is of subsidiary importance, and it would seem
that we need not be too solicitous of names when the
things themselves so far escape us. In translatiiig the title
Tao-Teh-King, M. Julien adopts the phrase, "The Book
of the Way and of Virtue.'' But while using this form
in the title, he retains the word Tao in the text, and does
not always translate Teh by the word "virtue"; and no
doubt this method is warranted by the fact that no single
term can be uniformly fitted to its context throughout the
work. The extreme flexibility of the term Tao I consider
to be most appropriate to the view of it presented in
various parts of the book, as, for example, in chapter i.
and chapter iv. In this respect it is similar to many of the
terms used in the mystical philosophies of India, Greece,
and Egypt, terms which escape definition by their wide
suggestiveness.

INTRODUCTION 23

As it is impossible to separate the ideas of operation and
agent, virtue and being, as if one should speak of the
Thinker as apart from thought, or Thought apart from
the thinker, it cannot be said that Laotze's work deals
with two independent subjects, as suggested by M. Julien's
title : Of the Way, and of Virtue ; and a form has therefore
been adopted in the present instance which preserves the
connection of the Tao and its TeA : " The Simple Way."

It should be remarked that the headings of the chapters
form no part of the original work, but have been added by
one of its many commentators. They are retained in the
present version because of their quaint fitness.

THE BOOK OF
THE SIMPLE WAY

OF

LAOTZE

I
MARKING OUT THE PATH

The Tao that is the subject of discussion is
not the true Tao.

The quahty which can be named is not its
true attribute.

That which was before Heaven and Earth
is called the Non-Existent.

The Existent is the mother of all things.

Therefore doth the wise man seek after
the first mystery of the Non-Existent, while
seeing in that which exists the Ultimates
thereof.

25

26 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

The Non-Existent and Existent are identi-
cal in all but name.

This identity of apparent opposites I call
the profound, the great deep, the open door
of bewilderment.

The Old Philosopher must not be mistaken for a Gymnast
in thus placing his subject at the outset beyond the pale of
discussion. Behind Brahma the Vedantins have placed Para-
brahm ; beyond the Elohim the Kabalists have set Ain Suph,
an unfathomable depth of unthinkable mysteries, upon the
clear surface of which, as upon a veil, a man may write what-
ever name he pleases ; or standing there, robed in the thought
of his own divine kinship, the pure in heart may look into its
crystal depths and see Himself reflected. Can any man by
searching find out God? asks the Hebrew. The Christ said,
" The pure in heart shall see God." Laotze will tell us later on
in his book the means whereby the seeker shall find, whether
within himself or in the universe without. But since know-
ledge can only affirm, while doubt may reason and discuss, it
is certain that " the Tao that is the subject of discussion is not
the true Tao." And further, because to qualify is to define,
and to define is to limit, and because every limitation connotes
an imperfection, we can name no quality which is the real
attribute of Tao. The Causal Principle of all effects Laotze
calls the Non-Existent. The well-known philosophical gamut
of Principles, Causes, Effects, and Ultimates is reduced by the
Sage to the Non-Existent and the Existent, for seeing only
One Cause (Tao), he regards all else as a single Effect (Nature).
By Heaven we may therefore understand the spiritual, causal,
or noumenal world, and by the Earth the material, physical

SELF-PERFECTION 27

world of effects. Matter is the ultimate expression of Spirit,
as form is that of force, and hence for every spiritual force
there is a corresponding material form, and these, like the
Non-Existent and Existent, are "identical in everything but
name." We have, therefore, the philosophic square —

Spirit. Force.

Being.

Matter. Form.

This identity of apparently opposite things the Sage very aptly
calls the "open door of bewilderment," by which anyone may
enter into the secrets of Nature, if only he knows the way.

II

SELF-PERFECTION

When the world speaks of beauty as being
beautiful, ugliness is at once defined.

When goodness is seen to be good, evil is
at once apparent.

So do existence and non-existence mutually
give rise to one another, as that which is
difficult and that which is easy, distant and
near, high and low, shrill and bass, preceding
and following

28 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

The Sage therefore is occupied only with
that which is without prejudice.

He teaches without verbosity, he acts with-
out effort ; he produces without possessing,
he acts without regard to the fruit of action ;
he brings his work to perfection without as-
suming credit ; and claiming nothing as his
own, he cannot at any time be said to lose.

Laotze is not here concerned with the philosophic discussion
of the "pairs of opposites," nor does he concern himself with
the laws of Thought by which this dualism is induced in us,
for he has already dispensed with the subject by affirming their
essential identity ; but he shows that while we are in a state
of separateness from Tao, this relationship of the mind to one
thing at a time is the cause of endless contradictions and
diversities. By pointing the fact that Beauty and Goodness
are only recognised as beautiful and good from a consciousness
of their opposites, he suggests that if they were qualities in
universal possession they would be unrecognisable as such, for
ugliness and evil would disappear with the consciousness of
such qualities by comparison.

The all-sufficiency of Tao is illustrated in the last stanza by
the Ufe of the Sage. It is worthy of note that the doctrine of
"acting without regard to the fruits of action" is the basic
teaching of the Bhagavad Gitk, and is acknowledged to be the
finest ethical scheme ever presented to the world. In this
spirit the Christ said to his disciples, " These things I do not
of myself, but of the Spirit of God which dwelleth in me."
For none can assume credit to himself without having regard
to the fruits of action. "~^

RESTING THE PEOPLE 29

III

RESTING THE PEOPLE

Avoiding distinctions of merit among the
people prevents jealousy.

Not setting a value on rare things prevents
theft.

Not seeking the things of sense keeps the
mind in peace.

Thus the Sage governs by ridding the heart
of its desires, giving the stomach due satis-
faction, by resting the muscles and strengthen-
ing the bones, by preserving the world from a
knowledge of evil and hence from its desire,
and by making those who have such know-
ledge afraid to use it.

He acts by non- action, and by this he
governs all.

If merit and the reward of merit were taken away and in-
tegrity and virtue allowed to be their own reward, whatever
good might be done would be done for its own sake. What a
weeding out of political and social adventurers there would
be ! The world would produce sound fruit, without the maggot
of selfishness hidden at the core. If diamonds were as common

30 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

as pebbles on the shore, they would be little esteemed. Only
those who set a value on rare things can say why diamonds
are to be desired. It is certain that we cannot eat them, nor
gain any intelligence from them, nor do they conduce to our
spiritual welfare in any way. For cutting and grinding they
have hardly an equal, but if you want stones broken on the
highway, you had better find a man. Yet neither the jewel nor
the stone-breaker assume any merit. It is we who esteem the
one and disparage the other, thus putting a premium on theft
and discounting honest work. The Sage begins by governing
himself before setting out to govern others, according to the
wise old saying, " Ching ke, hwa jin," i.e. " First straighten
yourself, then correct others." The Sage lets good alone and
corrects the evils which are within his reach. Having got rid
of Selfhood (the Ahankara of the Indian philosophy), he acts
from unselfish motives, and so establishes a virtuous govern-
ment.

IV

THE CAUSELESS

Tao is without limitation; its depth is the
source of whatsoever is.

It makes sharp things round, it brings order
out of chaos, it obscures the brilliant, it is
wholly without attachment.

I know not who gave it birth ; it is more
ancient than God.

THE VALUE OF NOTHING 3t

Tao is said to "make sharp things round." By this ex-
pression we may, perhaps, understand its universal adaptability
and persuasiveness, no less than the perfection of its processes.
So in the expression, '■'■Hang tsun fang peen," i.e. "Always
respect square-convenient," we have the idea of making square
things round by adapting our actions to the likes and dislikes
of others, or, as we say, making room for others. The perfect
man is symmetrical : he has no sharp points of contention, his
adaptability is perfect, his intelligence is constructive, he brings
cosmos out of chaos. In brilliance he is like the sun, which
obscures the light of the stars, his radiance falling on all alike,
for the wise man " has no predilections." This virtue is in Tao,
by which man is made perfect.

The philosophic scale of Laotze appears from the last stanza
of this chapter and from other passages of his book to be as
follows : —

Principle . Tao I heaven]

Cause . . God J I Cogniser, Man.

Effect . . Creation Uarth

Uhimate . Use ) J

V

THE VALUE OF NOTHING

Neither Heaven nor Earth has any pre-
dilections ; they regard all persons and things
as sacrificial images.

The wise man knows no distinctions ; he
beholds all men as things made for holy uses.

The celestial space is Uke unto bellows — •
though containing nothing that is solid, it

32 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

does not at any time collapse ; and the more
it is set in motion, the more does it produce.

The inflated man, however, is soon ex-
hausted.

Than seK-restraint there is nothing better.

The perfect impartiality of Heaven in its dispensations to
mankind has often been the subject of discussion, of deep
thought with the learned and devout, of unbelief and scoffing
with the ignorant. The operations of Nature are equally im-
partial ; but this being evident and overwhelming to the senses,
it cannot be mocked at nor denied. The ignorant are con-
cerned with effects, the wise have more regard to causes. The
Sun shines upon the .just and the unjust with equal radiance,
the soil responds in equal degree to the touch of the honest
and dishonest worker. The same Nature supplies all their
needs, the same Heaven overarches them. The wicked man
equally with the good procreates and sustains his species.
What is the reason of this ? The Sage says, what we have
elsewhere learned, that " God is no respecter of persons."
Neither Heaven nor Earth have any regard to merit or de-
merit in the person, but both have a great regard for use.
" Take what thou wilt, but pay the price," is the divine man-
date, says Emerson. Therefore, if any man would sow, let
him sow ; and if any man would reap, let him reap. Heaven
is the great husbandman and Earth the great granary. Every
man will be paid in kind, according to the measure of his use.
Thus the Sage, keeping close to God and Nature, regards all
men as " vessels made to holy uses." The virtue of Heaven is
its expansiveness, the virtue of man is his manhood. The
Sage concerns himself with this, and keeps himself within
proper limits.

THE ORIGIN OF THINGS 33

VI

THE ORIGIN OF THINGS

Like the river in the valley, the spirit is never
dried up.

I call it the Mother-Deep.

The motion of the Mother-Deep I regard
as the origin of the Heaven and the Earth.

Forever it endures and moves without de-
sign.

The great flowing rivers of China would satisfy this simile
of the inexhaustible nature of the Spirit, while others would
not. The Mother-Deep is, as already shown, regarded by
Laotze as a substantial Essence continually in a state of
activity. Its modifications have produced every celestial and
terrestrial object and creature. In this form it seems to corre-
spond to the A'tmk of the Hindu philosophy, which by differ-
entiation is the Mula-prakriti or Root-Substance of the uni-
verse, akin to the Protyle of Crookes, or the World-stuff of
Clifford, but by no means to be confounded with them. Prim-
ordial substance is in all systems of cosmogony likened to
deep water or the Ocean. Thus we have in the Hebrew scrip-
ture, " Ve-Ruach-Elohim merechepeth ol-peni he-mayim," i.e.
" The Breatff of Elohim fluttered upon the face of the Deep "
(Vulg. " The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters").
That this Mother-Substance is an eternal Essence is evident
from the phrase, " Forever it endures." Being subject to the
laws of its own nature, " It .moves without design." That it

34 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

does so, does not preclude the idea of a co-ordinate Intelli-
gence, of which its movements are expressive. That the
whole activity of Nature is intelligible, probably intelligent,
seems acceptable to the reason ; but it can hardly be said to
be purposive. The purpose (not the purpose of our conception,
but the inherent purpose) lies not in the activity nor in the
mode of activity, but in the Intelligence which directs it to
definite and preconceived ends. Such Intelligence must be a
primordial correlate of Life and Substance, regarding these
latter as synthetic of all modes of energy and all states of
matter. Otherwise we should have blind force acting in blind
matter, making of the intelligible Cosmos only a "fortuitous
concurrence of atoms" — a concept long since abandoned by
every honest thinker. And so because Intelligence and Pur-
pose must be ascribed to the User of things rather than to the
things used, Laotze says of this Mother-Substance, " It moves
without design."

VII

HIDING THE LIGHT

Both Heaven and Earth endure a long time.

The cause of their endurance is their in-
difference to long life.

That is why they subsist.

Thus the wise man, indiiFerent to himself,
is the greatest among men, and taking no care
for himself, he is nevertheless preserved.

By being the most unselfish he is the most
secure of aU.

THE EASY NATURE 35

Regarded merely from the pathological point of view, this
indifference to life being the probable cause of long life, would
appear to be a fact in Nature. The familiar saying that care
killed the cat — and cats have a reputation for being wonder-
fully tenacious of life — is intended to mean that constitutions
which can withstand the attacks of disease and all the incon-
veniences due to exposure and privation will readily succumb
to the effects of " carking care." Of course, it may be also said
that pleasure will kill as soon. But pleasure would never
corrupt a man if he did not first corrupt pleasure. There is
only one antidote for care, and that is carefulness. And
because there is nothing more deadly than life the Sage
secures himself by his indifference to it. Being indifferent
to life, he is, nevertheless, careful of its uses, and so secures
all the fruits of life without desiring them. Thus he is wholly
free from care, and his old age is full of contentment.

VIII

THE EASY NATURE

The greatest virtue is like water ; it is good
to all things.

It attains the most inaccessible places with-
out strife.

Therefore it is hke Tao.

It has the virtue of adapting itself to its
place.

It is virtuous like the heart by being deep.

36 LaOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

It is virtuous like speech by being faithful.

It is virtuous like government in regulating.

It is virtuous like a servant in its ability.

It is virtuous like action by being in season.

And because it does not strive it has no
enemies.

Laotze here wishes to say, and says in the most effectual
manner, that the heart that is not deep, the speech that is not
faithful, irregular government, a servant without ability, and
action out of season, are without virtue. Principal among the
qualities of water are its universality, its moUience, its adapt-
ability, and its steadfastness or incompressibility. In this it is
like the Tao, for while it accommodates itself to the dimensions
and shape of every vessel, it is nevertheless steadfast and un-
yielding. It is at once the softest and the most irresistible of
things. It flows of its own accord to the lowest places, yet is
found in the most elevated. It is deeper than the deepest mine
and higher than the loftiest mountain. It seeks the line of
least resistance, and therefore it makes most progress. The
virtue of Tao is manifold. The use of water is manifold.
Nature cannot do without water, and Heaven cannot do without
Tao. Man, who is related to both God and Nature, needs
both water and Tao. This is the mystery of the saying,
"Except ye be born of water and the Spirit, ye cannot be
preserved."

MAKING THINGS EQUAL 37

IX

MAKING THINGS EQUAL

It is advisable to refrain from continual reach-
ing after wealth.

Continual handling and sharpening wears
away the most durable thing.

If the house be full of jewels, who shall
protect it ?

Wealth and glory bring care along with
pride.

To stop when good work is done and honour
advancing is the way of Heaven.

The Sage here advises us to leave well alone and give our-
selves some rest. It is better to have a little and be able to
hold it, than to have much and be in constant dread of losing
it. " What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and
lose his own soul ? " For in spite of this age of shams, imita-
tions, and appearances, the jewel is ever more to be considered
than its setting. It is well to know when to stop in the getting
of either wealth or fame. What is the use of acquiring over-
much of what we cannot hold for long ? Every dead man will
get his laurels. A live man has only to deserve them. And
after all, as the immortal bard says, " He is well paid that is
well satisfied." How often a fortune is lost by a man grasping
at the last penny when he is sure of the pound ! How often a
good picture is spoiled by the last stroke of the brush ! There
is evident satisfaction in contentment and undoubted virtue in
restraint.

38 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

X

WHAT IS POSSIBLE

By conserving the natural and spiritual powers
it is possible to escape dissolution.

By restraining the passions and letting
gentleness have sway it is possible to con-
tinue as a child.

By purging the mind of impurities it is
possible to remain untainted.

By governing the people with love it is
possible to remain unknown.

By continual use of the gates of Heaven
it is possible to preserve them from rust.

By transparency on all sides it is possible
to remain unrecognised.

To bring forth and preserve, to produce
without possessing, to act without hope of
reward, and to expand without waste, this is
the supreme virtue.

Unfortunately the Sage does not give explicit instruction
how to conserve the natural forces so as to escape dissolution,

WHAT IS POSSIBLE 39

but he certainly gives us some lucid hints both as to that and
as to the preservation of the spiritual powers also. There is
in the East a system of psycho-physical culture called Yoga
(union, at onement), which aims at the unification of the natural
and spiritual powers in man, by means of which it is said a
man may retain his bodily and mental powers for an indefinitely
long time. The great exponent of this system was Patanjali,
whose work, the Yoga Sutra, or Philosophy of Atonement, is
divided into two sections — " Hatha Yoga," or physical culture,
and " Raj Yoga," mental culture. The purport of the work
may be summed up in these few words : Regulate the breath,
steady the mind, rid the heart of its desires, and enjoy peace.
Whether Laotze is referring to any such system, it is difficult
to say ; but this we know, his body was full of vigour at ninety
years of age, and his intellect commanded the esteem of no
less a luminary than Confucius. But then, as he himself says,
"the Sage gives without possessing." The lapse of twenty-
four centuries has not diminished the light of his philosophy,
which is only now beginning to be appreciated in the West.
Laotze has surely escaped dissolution in the wider sense.

Probably the whole key to this conservation of the natural
powers lies in the last stanza of this notable chapter. It is a
fact that the systole and diastole movements of the brain
(cerebrum) are synchronous and commensurate with those of
the lungs. In some way living and breathing are more in-
timately related than is implied by ordinary comment, for not
only is breathing the natural condition of living, but the kind
of breathing denotes the habit of living. The slowest breathing
animals are the longest lived. Moreover, the connection between
breathing and thinking is not sufficiently recognised by the
people. In anger a man breathes stertorously and quickly ; in
fear, he suspends breathing ; in surprise, he catches his breath
spasmodically ; in profound thought, his respiration is slow and
deep. Further, there is a measurable variation in the period
and force of respiration when thinking of things of contrary
natures, as black and white, high and low, pushing and pulling.

40 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

The breathing follows the thought. So by steadying the mind
we steady the brain, regulate the breathing, and so control to
a large extent the combustion of tissue in the body. It is
possible to affect the mental processes by a reverse use of this
method. As to which is the easier, or eventually more effective,
whether to control the mind by means of the breathing or the
breathing by means of the mind, is a matter that may be left
to the consideration of physiologists and psychologists.

But Laotze makes the science of life to depend on virtue, i.e.
use. It is, perhaps, better that a child should die in virtue
than that a man should live a long time and not be in virtue.
The one makes a natural use of its small powers, while the
other has greater powers and yet cannot use them aright. To
come to mature years without loss of virtue is what Laotze calls
"expanding without waste."

XI

THE USE OF NOTHING

The thirty spokes of a carriage wheel uniting
at the nave are made useful by the hole in
the centre, where nothing exists.

Vessels of moulded earth are useful by
reason of their hoUowness.

Doors and windows are useful by being
cut out.

A house is useful because of its emptiness.

Existence, therefore, is like unto gain, but
Non-Existence to use.

SHUTTING THE DOORS 41

Laotze here teaches the value of self-effacement and obscur-
ity — the virtue of humility. Having already called Heaven and
Earth the "Existent," and Tao the "Non-Existent," he here
shows their relationship. The Existent is the concrete thing,
the Non-Existent the virtue of the thing by reason of which it
exists. Thus a vessel of earth is fit to contain a something,
but the containing is not a property of the vessel, such as is its
material, coadherence, and form. Its containing is a virtue or
use gained by its relationship to something else, namely, that
which is contained ; and since it has no use apart from its
containing, that which is contained is what gives it a use, and
by reason of which it is called into existence. So man, the
Existent, is the vessel of earth, and Tao, the Non-Existent, is
what gives him a use. If a man is full of vanities, how can
Tao fill him? It is only a question of the Fang peen once
more, i.e. " making room " for Tao by ridding the heart of its
vanities.

XII

SHUTTING THE DOORS

Light will blind a man, sound will make
him deaf, taste will ruin his palate, the chase
will make him wild, and precious things will
tempt him.

Therefore does the wise man provide for
the soul and not for the senses.

He ignores the one and takes the other
with both hands.

42 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

The Sage here shows how the senses may be ruined by
surfeit, and how faculties designed for use and the pleasures of
use may be spoiled through excess. In the Bhagavad Gitk
Krishna instructs Arjuna in the necessity of restraining the
senses. He compares them to unbroken horses harnessed to
the chariot or vehicle, i.e. the human body. The driver
{Manas, the mind) controls the horses by means of the reins
of Reason, and by the power of the Will finally masters them.
Throughout this classic the Reason is opposed to the Senses
and the Will opposed to the Passions. Indeed, there are
grounds for believing that the Great War between the Kurus
and Pandus is intended to depict only this strife between the
Reason and Sense, or the Will and Desire, in man. Our author
here takes the same line of instruction, and shows the futility
of depending on the senses for our happiness and welfare.
On the frieze of the Parthenon of Athens the same lesson was
taught, as one may readily see if he examines it intelligently.

XIII

PREVENTING A FALL

Honour and shame are the same as fear.

Fortune and disaster are the same as the
person.

What is said of honour and shame is this :
shame is abasement, which is feared whether
it be absent or present.

So dignity and shame are inseparable from
the fear which both occasion.

PREVENTING A FALL 43

What is said of fortune and disaster is this :
fortune and disaster are things which befall
the person.

So without personality how should I suffer
disaster or the reverse ?

Therefore by the accident of good fortune
a man may rule the world for a time.

But by virtue of love he may rule the world
for ever.

Hatred, also, is akin to fear, for we only fear that which is
inimical to our natures, and which therefore is the subject of
our hatred. So because we fear disaster as threatening us
continually, we dislike disaster ; and fear is the state of the
person who is in danger of honour or dishonour, good fortune
or shame. Certainly both honour and good fortune are a
danger to us, in that we are continually in fear of losing
them, which is worse than never having had them at all.
To rid ourselves of the sense of attachment is to free our-
selves from the fears incidental to personality. Fame and
fortune are things which appertain to earthly rulership, while
love is that whl'^i belongs to the government of Heaven.

44 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

XIV

PRAISING THE VOID

Ie. Plainness is that which cannot be seen by
looking at it.

He. StUlness is that which cannot be heard
by listening to it.

We. Rareness is that which cannot be felt
by handling it.

These, being indiscernible, may be regarded
as an unity — I H W, Tao.

It is not bright above nor dark beneath.

Infinite in operation, it is yet without name.

Issuing forth it enters into Itself.

This is the appearance of the Non- Apparent,
the form of the Non-Existent.

This is the unfathomable mystery.

Going before, its face is not seen ; following
after, its back is not observed.

Yet to regulate one's life by the ancient
knowledge of Tao is to have found the path.

PRAISING THE VOID 45

That which appertains to the Absolute must necessarily be
in terms of the Ta-poo (not that), and the attributes of the Tao
are therefore put in the negative. This method is followed by
the Nistika philosophers of India, who aflfirm the noumenal
by negation of the phenomenal, as in the Dwddas'a Sloki of
S'ankarS-charya, which begins —

" Na bhumir na toyam na tejo na vayur na kham
Nendriyaitwd, na teshdm samuhah :
Anekdntikaiwdt sushupyeka siddhah :
Tadekovashishtd Siva kevaloham,"
That is—

" I am neither the earth, water, luminosity, atmosphere, nor ether ;
I am not the senses which cognise them, nor all these together," etc.
". . . I am that sole remaining imperishable Siva."

Thus while refusing to define and limit Deity to the concep-
tions of the human mind, they content themselves by saying of
whatsoever may be affirmed concerning it, " It is not that." So
with Tao, it is inclusive and summative of all known things and
qualities, while not identified with any, nor defined by any
known attributes. It cannot be seen, heard, felt, yet it is every-
where present. It is attributeless, non-apparent, and has
therefore no name. It is the Unmanifest. It is also the Non-
Existent, for " issuing forth, it enters into Itself." Mr. Chalmers
has taken the cryptogram, le. He, We, as identical with
the Yod He Vau (I H W) of the Kabalistic name for Deity.
It is here evidently a glyph for Tao. Time after time one
suspects Laotze of having had access to some of the mystical
writings of the West, and even to the Hebrew Scriptures, so
closely does he voice phrases and ideas already familiar to our
minds. Whether this be so or not we have no certain means
of judging, though it is reasonable to suppose that as curator
of the Royal Library he had access to every sort of book that
had then found its way to China. It is hardly credible, how-
ever, that in the sixth century B.C. even the elements of the
Kabala could have reached the Far East.

46 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

The words Path, Doctrine, and Tao are identical as applied
to the subject of Laotze's book, and the reader may use which-
ever word seems to him most in accord with the spirit of
the context.

XV

EXHIBITING VIRTUE

The ancient wise men were skilful in their
mysterious acquaintance with profundities.

They were fathomless in their depths ; so
profound, that I cannot bring them forth to
my mind.

They were cautious, like one who crosses a
swoUen river.

They were reserved, Uke one who doubts
his fellows.

They were watchful, like one who travels
abroad.

They were retiring, like snow beneath the
sun.

They were simple, like newly felled timber.

They were lowly, like the valley.

They were obscure, like muddy water.

EXHIBITING VIRTUE 47

May not a man take muddy water and
make it clear by keeping still ?

May not a man take a dead thing and make
it alive by continuous motion ?

Those who follow this Tao have no need of
replenishing, and being devoid of aU proper-
ties, they grow old without need of being
fiUed.

To what order of "wise men" Laotze here refers it is difficult
to say with any degree of certainty. It is well known that
Tchang Ki and Yao and some others among the ancient rulers
of China had the reputation of being men of exceeding good-
ness and wisdom. " Wise men of old," such as Seth and Enoch,
who " walked with God," are frequently referred to in sacred
and classic writings. At least fifteen centuries before the time
of our author the Pyramid of Ghizeh was built under the
direction of Khufu (Cheops) on the instruction, it is said, of
one of the Hyksoi or Shepherd Kings. At even an earlier
date a great civilisation was in progress in Egypt, and it is
known that astronomical records were made in China as far
back as B.C. 2448, as appears from the Shu King. There is,
indeed, ample evidence to show that in very ancient times —
ancient even from the standpoint of Laotze, who lived 2,500
years ago — it was possible for men to have passed through all
the accidents of life in a high order of civilisation, and to have
finally abandoned themselves to the getting of wisdom, having
found that all else was " vanity and vexation of spirit," as did
Solomon the King in his day. Reference is made in the Scrip-
tures to the ingenuous and spontaneous nature of the ancient
Sages — "Wise men of old spake as they were moved by the

48 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

Holy Spirit." There is no reason to suppose that all tne wise
men are included in Scripture history, nor that they were all
crowded into the comparatively narrow geographical limits of
the Hebrew records. China also had its patriarchs long before
the Hia dynasty was established in the year B.C. 2205, and it
seems probable that some of them were fully entitled to the
name of Philosopher and Sage. Whoever they were, Laotze
had sufficient knowledge of their wisdom to hold them in the
very highest esteem. The phrase, "May not a man take a
dead thing and make it alive by continuous motion?" appears
to have reference to the ignition of sticks by friction, and other
means of inducing activity in inert bodies.

XVI

GOING HOME

Having emptied yourself of everything, re-
main where you are.

All things spring forth into activity with
one accord, and whither do we see them re-
turn?

After blossoming for a while, everything
dies down to its root.

This going back to one's origin is called
peace ; it is the giving of oneself over to the
inevitable.

GOING HOME 49

This giving of oneself over to the inevitable
is called preservation.

He vi^ho loiows this preservation is called
enlightened.

He who knows it not continues in misery.

He who knows this preservation is great
of soul.

He who is great of soul is prevailing

Prevailing, he is a king.

Being a king, he is celestial.

Being celestial, he is of Tao.

Being of Tao, he endures for ever; for
though his body perish, yet he suffers no hurt.

This law of Change, this springing forth into activity and dying
down to the root, is everywhere observable in Nature. Indeed,
it is so apparent, so much in the nature of things, that it is a
subject of marvel that the idea of death is yet unfamiliar to the
human mind. Nowhere do we find humanity reconciled to the
circumstance of death as to the inevitable, although it is a fact
in Nature as certain as the rising of the Sun. Can it be the
protest of the Soul, itself immortal, against association with a
state so strange to it as death ? Yet it is curious that, however
long a man may live, the end always comes to him and to
those around him as something awful, mysterious, and strange.
Perhaps it is that we are too full of plans for to-morrow, too
E

so LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

full of unsatisfied ambitions and desires, that a sudden inter-
ference with our plans is a thing hard to accommodate.

Therefore the Sage says, "First of all empty yourself of
everything, give yourself over to the inevitable, and go back
Home in peace." Secondly, he says, " Having done this, you
v^ill be preserved, you will be enlightened, will be great of soul,
a king, a celestial being, and finally will become at one with
Tao." So in India they say that he who goes back to this
condition of childlike simplicity, this condition of original
purity, is Buddha (enlightened), Mahatma (great of soul), Ra-
jarshi (king of wisdom), Mahadeva (a celestial being), and
finally becomes at one with the Paramatma (the Universal
Spirit), having attained Moksha, or liberation.

We prate a good deal about freewill, and continually find that
what we claim for ourselves is not greater than that which may
be claimed for others. What little we have is so insignificant,
especially when we consider the ignorance which directs it and
the gloom in which it is exercised, that we may as well give it
over to God and enjoy His Omnipotence. It is universally
observed that the higher a man's state of evolution, the greater
is his respect for law. In this respect it may be said that the
desire for freewill in the unit is akin to ignorance of cosmic
and spiritual laws. Intelligence consists in the recognition of
the law, and the desire to avail oneself of its operations.
Ignorance, however, runs counter to the law at every turn, and
but for the preservation of Heaven would speedily end in self-
destruction.

BEING NATURAL 51

XVII

BEING NATURAL

In the first age of mankind the people recog-
nised their superiors.

In the second age they served and flattered
them.

In the third age they feared them.

In the fourth age they despised them.

Where faith is lacking it does not inspire
confidence.

How careful they were in their expressions I

When they had done a good thing they
would say, " How very natural we are I "

The Four Ages known to the Ancients, and passing current
among all nations, were known as (i) the Golden Age, (2) the
Silver Age, (3) the Copper Age, and (4) the Iron Age. The
Sanscrit literature contains frequent mention of these Four
Ages under the the following names : Satya, Treta, Dwapara,
and Kali (Yugas). The first age was that of integrity, the
second that of decline, the third that of good and evil, and the
fourth that of darkness. These were again subdivided into
lesser ages going by the same names. The Mahayugas, tH
Great Ages, had reference to cosmogenesis j the Yugas, or

52 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

lesser ages, to human evolution and the history of the race.
They are all astronomical periods, being based upon the
motions of the heavenly bodies. Thus it has been shown
that the sum of the Four Ages, amounting to 4,320,000 years,
is the least common multiple of all the planetary periods ; that
is to say, it is the time required for all the planets of the solar
system to complete their revolutions and come to the same
point of the Zodiac at the same time, and it has also been
shown that the included periods or Ages are njarked by the
concourse of several planets in the same part of the heavens.

Laotze here shows the attitude of the people towards their
rulers in the Four Ages, marking the deterioration of confi-
dence between them. If the attitude of the world towards
religious thought be considered in the same light, it will be
seen that the statements are by no means inapt. The Sage
further shows that the consciousness of doing good robs
action of its pristine virtue. When good flows naturally from
the heart there is no effort in doing good, and therefore no
consciousness of merit. Our author is satirical in the last
stanza of this chapter, but he need not have gone back to
the fourth age to find an illustration. It is another instance
of his inoffensive nature.

XVIII

PATCHING UP

When the great Tao is lost men follow after
charity and duty to one's neighbour.

When wisdom has met with honours the
world is full of pretenders.

PATCHING UP 53

When family ties are severed then filial duty
and parental indulgence take their place.

When a nation is filled with strife then do
patriots flourish.

This is a notable chapter. It is evident that Laotze's book
was written after the enunciation of the Confucian doctrine of
Charity and Duty, and at a time when that doctrine had
attained sufficient recognition and popularity as to be worthy
of notice. This agrees well with the data at our disposal.
Confucius is said to have propounded his doctrine about the
year B.C. 520, when he was thirty years of age. He travelled
through the principalities of China exhorting the people to
cease from their intestinal wars and to return to the unity
of the Empire. In B.C. 517 Confucius visited Laotze, as
already stated in the Introduction hereto. It was after his
eighty-seventh year, which would fall in B.C. 517, that Laotze
retired from life in the service of the State and betook himself
to the mountains. It follows, therefore, that the Tao-teh-king
was written soon after B.C. 517, if not in that year. In this
chapter Laotze refers to the doctrines of Confucius as a system
of " patching up " of that which is already worn out. The
so-called virtue of Charity and Duty to one's neighbour, the
recognition of wisdom and' learning by marks of merit, filial
duty, and parental indulgence, are all regarded by the Old
Philosopher as so many marks of degeneracy in the people.
Against them he -sets the natural virtue of integrity, and to
this he would have us revert. The marks of integrity are
summed up in these two words : God and Nature, godliness
and naturalness, Tao and Teh.

54 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

XIX

REVERTING TO NATURE

By giving up their self-righteousness and
abandoning their wisdom the people would
be immensely improved.

Forsaking Charity and Duty to the neigh-
bour, they might revert to their natural
relations.

Abandoning excellence and foregoing gain,
the people would have no more thieves.

The cultivation of these three things has
been a failure, therefore should they go back
whence they came.

As for you, do you come forth in your
natural simplicity, lay hold on verities, restrain
selfishness, and rid yourself of ambition.

The subject of the last chapter is here continued. The Sage
advises us to abandon all this effort for worldly esteem and
honour, and to revert to our first estate, to simplicity, truth,
unselfishness, and contentment. Having been born of water
(Nature) and the Spirit (God), we are regenerated and " be-
come as little children." There is now no longer any effort
in our lives. We know nothing of duty, but we are masters

HOLDING ALOOF 55

of virtue ; we make no effort, but we accomplish all that is
necessary ; we do not seek gain, but Nature provides for us ;
we do not excel, but the whole world revolves upon us. Our
very weakness is a tower of strength. If we are assailed, all
the world rushes to our help. Our simplicity is greater than
the wisdom of the Schools. If we speak, no man suspects us
of an evil motive. Even Death cannot reach us, for we are
already "of the kingdom of Heaven." Evidently, there is
great virtue in this " Original Simplicity " of which the Old
Philosopher speaks.

XX

HOLDING ALOOF

Dispense with your learning and save your-
selves anxiety ; the difference between certainly
and perhaps is not much after all.

Do they help us to distinguish between
good and evil ? for one must always be care-
ful of distinctions !

Alas ! but the people wUl never be free
from their folly.

They are filled with ambition, as the stalUon
ox is filled with lust.

I am singular in my bashfulness, I am de-
void of ambition, I am undeveloped as a little
chUd.

56 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

I am but a waif, a stray, a child without a
a home.

All others have an excess of good things,
but I am as one abandoned.

How fooUsh and simple am I ! I am be-
wildered.

Everyone sparkles with intelligence, I am
alone in my obscurity.

The people are full of discernment ; I alone
am dull.

I am tossed about like the ocean ; I roll and
am never at rest.

Everyone has something to do ; I alone am
incapable and without merit.

I alone am estranged from the people, but
I glory on the breast of my mother I

After satirising the so-called wisdom of the Schools, which
mainly consists in discriminating between "this" and "that"
(or, as they have it in the Chinese, " ready assent " and
"reluctant assent," the affirmative wet and the tentative o),
always regarding differences as of more importance than
similarities, and for ever discussing the branches instead of
going to the root, our author pretends to lament his own
incapacity and obscurity in order that he may say this one
thing of himself which is true — " I glory on the breast of my

THE EMPTY SOURCE 57

mother.'' He compares himself to a little child, abandoned
and rejected by mankind, but dear to his mother — Nature. It
is a full indictment of the world, and loses nothing of its force
by reason of its simplicity ; for how can we reject the child of
Nature without spurning Nature herself, on whose pure breast
he lies in his glory? All this worldly wisdom of ours, this
distinction of good and evil, this ambition, egoism, dogmatism,
this patriotism, this spacing out of our lives into codes of ethic
and polity, this ticketing and labelling of things and persons
which characterises the world to-day, all this is laughed at and
scorned by Laotze as something paltry, ridiculous, and un-
natural. Yet while rejecting Nature in the highest sense, we
swarm over her like parasites in all that appertains to the
merely earthly. We are for ever probing her for new and ever
new resources, prodding her for more and more sustenance,
nosing and pushing and squealing like a litter of young pigs,
and sucking at her like vampires. We know a great deal
about her operations and resources, all that concerns the mere
externals of her existence, but of Nature herself — her integrity,
her virtue, her unselfishness, her close union with God — we are
altogether ignorant, or what (but for our ignorance) would be
worse, indifferent.

XXI

THE EMPTY SOURCE

The greatest virtue is in simply following
Tao, the intangible, inscrutable.

Inscrutable, intangible, and yet containing
forms.

S8 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

Intangible, inscrutable, and yet containing
things.

Profound and obscure, but having an Es-
sence, a veritable essence in w^hich is consist-
ence.

From eternity until now its nature has re-
mained unchanged.

It inheres in all things from their beginnings.

How do I know of the origin of things ?

I know by Tao.

The properties of the Tao are here recited, and it is referred
to as a veritable, consistent, and unchangeable essence, which
is the root and origin of all things whatsoever. Elsewhere the
Tao appears from the context to mean the doctri?te concerning
the nature of this essence, as in the phrase, " When the Great
Tao is lost," etc. In this chapter we learn for the first time
that Laotze is not speaking from traditional knowledge of the
Tao, but from personal cognition of the doctrine, by means of
which he can discern the origin and nature of things. " I know
by (means of) Tao," he says. If the knowledge of Tao is
consequent upon reverting to one's original simplicity and
abandoning all that the world holds in esteem, Laotze may be
said to have attained it. We see the Old Philosopher, close
upon ninety years of age, leaving behind him the patronage of
an Emperor, the favours of princes, and the esteem of the
greatest minds of his age, toiling up the mountain-side to the
Kwan Yin Pass, where he writes a small book on the nature of
the True Path, which he commits to the care of a military out-

INCREASING THE SMALL 59

post. There were not so many pages as the writer had years,
but such as it was, he left it to the world, and the world has
held it for twenty-four centuries, seeming to know all along
that it had something good to take care of and to pass on to
posterity. And this that we have before us is that book : pro-
found, yet most simple ; perplexing, yet self-evident. As he
elsewhere defines the anomalies and paradoxes of nature, so
many will regard his book — " the open door of bewilderment."
It is worthy of observation that both Laotze and Krishna com-
mitted very similar doctrines each to the care of a soldier.
Having propounded the doctrine of Simplicity, Laotze "went
Home"; and if we may judge the man from his book, he had
not far to travel.

XXII

INCREASING THE SMALL

Whosoever adapteth himself shall be pre-
served to the end.

Whosoever bendeth himself shaU be straight-
ened.

Whosoever emptieth himself shall be filled.

Whosoever weareth himself away shall be
renewed.

Whosoever humbleth himself shall be ex-
alted.

Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased.

6o LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

Therefore doth the Sage cling to simplicity,
and is an example to aU men.

He is not ostentatious, and therefore he
shines.

He is not egotistic, and therefore he is praised.
He is not vain, and therefore he is esteemed.

He is not haughty, and therefore he is
honoured.

And because he does not compete with
others, no man is his enemy.

The ancient maxim, "Whosoever adapteth
himself shall be preserved to the end," verily
it is no idle saying.

Without doubt he shall go back to his
Home in peace.

The phrasing of this chapter is so like the text of the Chris-
tian scripture as to be remarkable in that respect alone. Thus
we have in the teaching of the holy Nazarene this phrase,
"Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted," spoken by the Christ when
exhorting His disciples to observe humility. Five centuries
before this, Laotze in China and Siddharta Gautama in India
were teaching the same doctrine in the same words. The
Spirit of Truth, speaking through the ages, has in different
climes spoken in various tongues, finding voice here in the
Hebrew, there in the HindU; now in the Arab, and again in

NON-IDENTIFICATION 6i

the Chinaman ; and in all we see " diversity of gifts, but the
same spirit." There is every reason to think that, from a
merely physical point of view, the adaptability of Nature is the
cause of its endurance. The idea is, perhaps, contained in the
scientific postulate of the Correlation of Forces. Nature effects
her operations with the least possible output of energy ; it
seeks the line of least resistance, as we see from the flowing
of the rivers, the zigzag of the lightning flash, and the ellipsis
of a planetary orbit ; it converts its forces by modulation from
one character to another ; it uses up all its waste material ; it
is never in a hurry. This is the Conservation of Energy which
science demonstrates. Yet while most economical, it is most
lavish ; although gentle, it is terrific ; and although it is irresist-
ible, it adapts itself to every occasion. Because of this infinite
capacity to adapt itself, it endures for ever.

XXIII

NON-IDENTIFICATION

Moderate your speech, and preserve yourself.

A hurricane will not outlast the morning,
a heavy rain will not outlast the day.

Who have the power to make these things
but Heaven and Earth ?

And if Heaven and Earth cannot continue
them long, how shall a man do so ?

If a man accords with Tao in all things, he
is identified with Tao by that agreement.

62 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

A virtuous man is identified with virtue, a
vicious man is identified with vice.

Whoever is identified with Tao, him do the
Taoists receive with gladness.

Whoever is identified with virtue, him do
the virtuous receive with gladness.

But whoever is identified with vice, him do
the vicious gladly serve vdth vice.

For wherever confidence is lacking, it is not
met with trust.

Moderation of desire and ambition is an essential to happi-
ness, as Laotze has already shown ; but perfection is not reached
without gentleness and corresponding moderation of both feeling
and action and speech. "Let your yea be yea, and your nay
nay," said the Master, "for whatsoever is more than this cometh
of evil." Laotze considers immoderate speech as so much waste
of energy. If we are to follow Tao, we must accord with it in
all things — in speech as well as in thought, in feeling as well as
in action. " Heaven and Earth," he says, " are not excessive,
though having the power to produce hurricanes and torrential
rains, so why should a man waste his energies in immoderate
language?" We may conclude from this that suavity and
gentleness and courtesy are qualities to be looked for in the
Sage.

UNDESIRABLE HONOURS 63

XXIV

UNDESIRABLE HONOURS

By standing on tiptoe one cannot keep still.

Astride of one's fellow one cannot progress.

By displaying oneself one does not shine.

By self-approbation one is not esteemed.

In self-praise there is no merit.

He who exalts himself does not stand high.

Such things are to Tao what refuse and ex-
creta are to the body.

They are everywhere detested.

Therefore the man of Tao will not abide
with them.

The Sage has a supreme disregard for non-essentials. Worldly
power, fame, advancement, titles, vanity, self-esteem, and depend-
ence on the strength or merits of others are condemned by him as
undesirable honours, not essential to true happiness and welfare.
He perceives that they are related to the externals of life, and
are, in fact, the products of a corrupt civilisation, and therefore
to be shunned as ofifal or excrement. The difference between
deserving and desiring the esteem of the world is of import-
ance. The man of virtue will so act as to deserve merit, but
this he will do because the whole virtue of life consists in use,
and not because of any desire for merit. He cares only to

64 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

fulfil his natural part in life, and to live without strife. If he
gains merit, he will know how to wear it with modesty, but it
will not in any way affect his course of action, nor cause him
to set a greater value on anything that he does. The man who
is desirous of merit acts only within the lines which lead that
way, and there is nothing spontaneous or altogether virtuous in
what he does. He is from the first attached to the fruits of
action, and therefore if he fails to gain merit by his work, he is
so much the more despondent and disappointed, and comes
even to the point of regretting whatever good he may incident-
ally have performed.

XXV

APPREHENDING THE VOID

Before Heaven and Earth existed there was
in Nature a primordial substance.

It was serene, it was fathomless.

It was self-existent, it was homogeneous.

It was omnipresent, nor suffered any Umita-
tion.

It is to be regarded as the universal mother.
I do not know its name, but I call it Tao.

If forced to qualify it, I call it the bound-
less.

Being boundless, I call it the inconceivable.

APPREHENDING THE VOID 65

Being inscrutable, I call it the inaccessible.

Being inaccessible, I call it the omnipresent.

Tao is supreme, Heaven is supreme. Earth
is supreme, the King is supreme.

There are in the universe four kinds of
supremacy, and their rulership is one.

Man is ruled by the Earth, the Earth is
ruled by Heaven, Heaven is ruled by Tao,
and Tao is ruled by itself.

From the point of view of the physicist this statement of the
nature of the primordial essence, or First Matter, in the uni-
verse will, I think, come in the nature of a surprise. This con-
cept of the Plenum has been referred to every philosopher in
turn— to Newton, Kepler, Bruno, Ptolemy, and to Plato. It
has been current' in Europe ever since the days of the Neo-
Platonists. In India it was of even more remote origin as a
philosophic concept. Here we find it in China, where it
appears to have been as well conceived of by Laotze as ever
it was in the Western schools of thought. He says it was
before Heaven and Earth. It therefore corresponds to Ath-
Ain-Suph of the Hebrew cosmogenesis. Thus we have in the
first of Genesis, ath-hashemayim ve-ath-hearetz, i.e. the original
substance of the disposers (Heavens) and the original substance
of the Earth. Laotze says it was without limitation and bound-
less. This is in agreement with the Hebrew expressions tohu
and bohu, the formless and boundless substance out of which
the cosmos was formed. Exactly the same idea is to be found
in the Hindu philosophy, wherein the universe is conceived to
be formed by differentiation from Mulaprakriti, the Root-
F

66 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WA\

substance or Mother-substance of the infinite. Figuratively
the universe is referred to as an egg {Brahmandam) floating
in the ocean of space, while fluttering over it is seen the Kala-
hamsa, or Bird of Time. The universe is frequently referred
to as the Auranyagarbha, or Golden Egg. It is a matter of
great interest to know that these deep problems were thought
out in very ancient times, and that the conclusions of the old
Sages were in no way discreditable to them from the point of
view of pure philosophy, while it is undoubtedly the fact that
they approached these subjects in a far more reverential spirit
than do the thinkers of the West to-day. Their inspirations
are only to be found in the sacred writings, by which circum-
stance they are saved all undue controversy, and, as Laotze
elsewhere says, " The Tao which is the subject of discussion
is not the true Tao (doctrine)."

Of the undulatory theory of light we have abundant evidence
in both Sanskrit and Hebrew writings, and on many other points
of the deepest significance it may be safely said that there is no
conflict between revealed religion and true science.

XXVI

THE VIRTUE OF GRAVITY

Weight underlies lightness, quiescence under-
lies motion.

Therefore the Sage never loses his gravity
and quiescence from day to day.

Though glorious palaces should belong to
him, he would dwell in them peacefully, with-
out attachment.

THE VIRTUE OF GRAVITY 67

Alas that a king with many chariots should
conduct himself with frivolity in the midst of
his kingdom I

By levity he loses his ministers, and by in-
constancy his throne.

Laotze uses the Alternation theorem to its fullest extent.
That weight underlies lightness is evident from the fact that
we cannot speak of that which is light without supposing
something that is heavy in comparison with it. Moreover,
from general considerations of the nature of bodies and their
gravities and positions, we are apt to think of that which is
heaviest as being also the lowest, and that which is lightest as
being also the highest ; and if left to themselves, things would
be thus naturally arranged. Therefore, in common parlance,
the earth is low and the heavens are high ; also that which is
heaviest is most stable, while that which is lightest is most
fugitive. So the Sage cultivates stability of character, that
those who depend on him may rest in security.

That motion underlies quiescence is evident from the fact
that we cannot think of motion apart from that which is
moved ; and to think of it as moving, we must first suppose
a position in which it is at rest, and from which it is dis-
sociated by the act of moving. Also, from what we reason
concerning the heavy and the light, there is an evident associa-
tion of the heavy with the quiescent, and of the light with the
fugitive. The Sage therefore cultivates gravity and restfulness
while remaining joyous and active. This he does by the power
of adaptation. Therefore all men respect him.

68 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

XXVII

THE USE OF SKILL

The good walker makes no dust after him.

The good speaker incurs no discussion.

The good reckoner needs no arithmetic.

The good keeper needs no bolts or bars,
and none can open after him.

The good binder needs no rope, and none
can loose after him.

The wise man is a constant and good helper
of his fellows. He rejects none.

He is a continual good preserver of things.
He disdains nothing.

His intelligence is all-embracing.

Good men instruct one another ; and bad
men are the materials they delve in.

Whoever, therefore, does not honour his
teacher and cherish his material, though he be
called wise, is yet in a state of delusion.

This is no less important than strange.

THE USE OF SKILL 69

The common incidents of everyday life are full of significance
for the observant and thoughtful person. When the eyes and
mouth are choked with the dust of other men's feet, the neat
walker commands our esteem, and it is a pleasure to follow
him. That is why it is more pleasant to follow the philosopher
than the gun-carriage, and easier to walk after Nature than
after a marching army. The good speaker incurs no dis-
cussion, because in the statement of his views he always leaves
room for the opinions of others. The good reckoner needs no
arithmetic, because he knows that the most abstruse calculation
is after all only a matter of addition and subtraction, and that
while there is only One, and that One is All, adding or taking
away this or that is only a change in the order of things, not in
their sum total. Therefore the Sage is concerned more with
the sum total of things than with the items. The good keeper
needs no bolts or bars, because he keeps nothing that he can-
not give away, and his greatest treasure caA neither be seen
nor handled. He is the guardian of the Doctrine (Tao), and
the key is within his own breast, so that none can open after
him. Therefore the Sage lays up for himself "treasure in
heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where
thieves cannot break through and steal." The Sage helps his
fellows and preserves all things, because he uses them with
skill.

Wisdom begets wisdom and folly instructs it. Therefore the
Sage learns how to use even the apparently useless. We must,
therefore, honour the Sage and cherish his material, bearing
ourselves in compassion with all persons and things whatso-
ever.

70 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

XXVIII

BECOMING A CHILD

He who, being a man, remains a woman, will
become an universal channel.

As an universal channel the eternal virtue
will never forsake him. He will re-become a
child.

He who, being in the light, remains in ob-
scurity, wiU become an universal model.

As an universal model the eternal virtue
will not pass him by. He will go back to the
all-perfect.

He who, being glorious, continues in humil-
ity, will become an universal valley.

As an universal valley the eternal virtue
will fill him. He will revert to the first essence.

This first essence is that which, being differ-
entiated, gives rise to innumerable vessels of
hfe.

A wise man, by embracing it, becomes the
wisest of governors.

A liberal government is that which neither
disregards nor hurts anyone.

NON-ACTION 71

Laotze here shows that the Sage completes his nature and
becomes symmetrical by developing simultaneously as man,
woman, and child. He educates the strength of a man, the
tenderness of a woman, and the simplicity of a child. Being
filled with the Eternal Virtue, he shines with it. He does not
shine against the Sun, but in obscurity, where shining is useful.
He is glorious, not in the presence of kings, but among the
people, who have need of his light. Having no will apart from
Heaven, he governs all things, not with indifference, and not
with tyranny, but as Heaven itself rules men — by love.

XXIX

NON-ACTION

When a man who wishes to reform the world
takes it in hand, I perceive that there will be
no end to it I

Spiritual vessels are not fashioned in the
world.

Whoever makes destroys ; whoever grasps
loses.

For perforce if one advances another is left
behind ; if one blows hot another will blow
cold ; if one be strengthened another will be
weakened ; if one be supported another wiU
be undermined.

72 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

Therefore the Sage gives up all enthusiasm,
levity, and pomp.

The reformer of the world is a plague and a pestilence,
destroying things as they are and not staying to build up where
he has destroyed. Let every man begin with his own conduct,
and reform that ; and when everyone succeeds, the world will
need no further reformation. But if one cannot reform himself
how shall he reform the world? There is something of mad-
ness in everyone, if not in the germ at least in tendency ; but
there is more than the usual predisposition to madness in the
reformer. He sweeps into the horizon of our peaceful lives
like a blazing comet, " brandishing his flaming tresses in the
sky," and in his wake there are hordes of cadaverous ghouls
and croaking vultures. Simeon and Levi — the political and
religious reformers — "are a twin. Instruments of cruelty are
in their habitations. Enter not into their counsel, O my Soul !
Be thou not joined to their assembly. For in their vehemence
they slew a man, and in their rashness they digged down a wall."

That "whoever makes destroys" is evident from the fact
that there can be only one Maker of all things, and all human
interference is only a process of pulling down in one place to
set up in another. There is nothing gained in the process.
So in the building up of Empires and Principalities. One may
establish an Empire and destroy the unity of the Race, or build
a Principality and destroy the integrity of the nation. That
"he who grasps loses" is a corollary of the statement that
"he who claims nothing as his own cannot at any time be
said to lose." For if a man grasps an empire it is certain that
sooner or later he will lose it. In view of our limitations and
mortality it is better that we should regard God and Nature
as already in possession and look to our stewardship. When
this is done a temperate government is sure to follow, and the
people will be cemented in goodwill to their rulers and to
one another.

DECLINING FROM STRIFE 73

XXX

DECLINING FROM STRIFE

The man who aids the King by the use of
Tao forces the people into submission without
resort to the use of arms. He will not regard
the fruit of his actions.

Prickly briars and thorns flourish where
battahons have quartered.

Bad years foUow on the heels of armies
in motion.

The good soldier is brave when occasion
requires, but he does not risk himself for
power.

Brave is he when occasion requires, but he
does not oppress.

Brave is he when occasion requires, but he
does not boast.

Brave is he when occasion requires, but he
is not haughty.

Brave is he when occasion requires, but he
is not mean.

74 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

Brave is he when occasion requires, but he
does not rage.

Things become old through excess of vigour.
This is called Non-Tao ; and what is Non-Tao
is soon wasted I

There is no harm in forcing the people when violence is not
used. By means of the Original Simplicity of Nature the
people may be constrained through their own dispositions, and
there is no violence done to any. It is always as easy to pull
as to push. The great thing is to get along without undue
effort.

No doubt this chapter was written for the special edification
of the Guard of the Kwan-yin Pass, himself a soldier and a
follower of the Tao. Perchance he had pondered on the
seeming incongruity of his calling and the doctrine of life
which he had espoused. Laotze reassures him. The situa-
tion is exactly similar to that of Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gitk
Therein we read that Krishna instructed the soldier upon the
dharma (duty) of his station, showing that, whatever the call-
ing, its merit lies in the faithful discharge of its obligations,
" without regard to the fruit of action." The dharma of the
warrior Arjuna and the teh (virtue) of the solitary picket of
the Kwan-yin Pass are the same. Dharma is the special
aptitude of all things born into the external world ; and hence
it comes to mean "calling, duty," and eventually "merit."
Laotze intends the same meaning in the use of the word teh.
The merit of everything is in its use. Its use depends upon
its nature. Therefore all merit and virtue are in the uses of
things. Individual power is the measure of one's responsi-
bility, and ability is the limit of obligation ; and it is a logical
maxim that "virtue consists in being oneself," as our philo-
sopher teaches.

CEASING FROM WAR 75

After stating that war brings trouble and misfortune to the
people, it is stated that the responsibility of such disasters does
not rest upon the good soldier, who, although he be "brave
when occasion requires," is clear of responsibility in the com-
pletion of his duty, so he be not oppressive, nor boastful, nor
haughty, nor mean, nor wrathful, for by these qualities he
identifies himself with the fruits of his actions, and incurs
responsibility.

XXXI

CEASING FROM WAR

Weapons, however ornamental, are not a
source of happiness, but are dreaded by all.

Therefore the man of Tao will not abide
where such things are.

A respectable man at home sets the place
of honour at his left hand ; but the warrior
on going forth to battle gives honour to the
right hand. For weapons are things of ill
omen, and the man of enhghtenment does not
use them except when he cannot help it.

His great desire is peace, and he does not
take joy in conquest.

To joy in conquest is to joy in the loss of
human hfe.

76 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

He who joys in bloodshed is not fit to govern
the country.

When aflfairs are prosperous the left side is
preferred, but when things are adverse the
right is esteemed.

The adjutant-general is therefore on the
left side, while the general-in-chief is on the
right.

This I perceive is the manner also observed
at a funeral !

He who has occasion to kill many people
has cause for deep sorrow and tears.

Therefore a victorious army observes the
order of a funeral.

The contrast between the Mongolian customs and those of
the West has often been a subject of comment. Almost every
action of a Chinaman is gauche from a Western point of view.
In China the left hand is the fortunate one, and the right is the
"sinister." This will make the saying of Laotze intelligible!
for in times of peace, when the adjutant-general takes the
command, the place of honour is on the left of the column
or battalion, while in times of war, when the general-in-chief
takes command, the place of honour is on the right.

The philosopher continues his teaching upon the uses of
war, showing that there is no cause for exultation in victory,
if such victory entails the shedding of human blood. Rather

INTELLIGENT VIRTUE 77

is it a cause for sorrow, and the ancients recognised this when
they disposed the victorious army after the manner of a funeral.
• The recognition and use of the doctrine of Original Sim-
plicity would make an end of war, and as to punitive ex-
peditions, they too would cease. "Why should I take upon
myself to punish the evildoer .? " says the philosopher ; " there
is always the Great Executioner ! " Let every man first be sure
of his just rights, and then guard them ; let him govern that
which is his own and leave others to govern theirs. If a man
shall sincerely take himself in hand, he will have little time to
make war upon others ; and with slender cause to find fault
with them, he will not presume to correct them. This is what
the Chinese philosopher calls "taking control." It is elsewhere
referred to as " the little occupation," or " the small handful."
But it is enough for one man, and will last him a lifetime.

XXXII

INTELLIGENT VIRTUE

Tao the absolute has no name.

But although insignificant in its original
simplicity, the world does not presume to be-
mean it.

If a king could lay hold on it, the world
would of itself submit to him.

Heaven and Earth would conspire to nourish"
him.

78 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

The people without pressure would peace-
fully fall into their own places.

If he should dispose them by titles and
names, he would be making a name for him-
self.

Yet he would wisely stop short of the name,
and thus avoid the evil of distinctions.

Tao is to the world what the streams and
valleys are to the great rivers and seas.

The virtue of all things lies in their natural qualities and
uses, and not in the names that we give to them ; and the
scent of a rose is sweet, let us call it what we will. If haply
we name things by their inherent quaUties, we do to that ex-
tent observe harmony and display intelligence. Kings are dis-
tinguished by the virtue of their ruling ; but those who are
servile in character are by that reason unkingly, being domin-
ated by their passions, by their courtiers, and by their people,
who rise up against them. When a king rules by virtue " the
people fall into their natural places."

If a man has a taste for titles, let him have many. It costs
no more than a breath, and does not impoverish the country ;
and should he prove himself worthy of only one of them,
everyone should be well satisfied. Yet Tao, to whom all offices
are natural, and who fulfils everyone of them, remains without
a name ! Here the philosopher evidently intends the Supreme
Being in essence and in manifestation, the Absolute, the In-
effable.

The Tao is compared to " streams and valleys," because it
feeds and sustains the great waters, i.e. the people.

DISCERNING VIRTUE 79

XXXIII

DISCERNING VIRTUE

He is wise who knows others.

He who knows himself is enlightened.

He is strong who conquers others.

He who conquers himself is mighty.

He is rich who is well satisfied.

He walks fast who has an object.

He who fills his place remains secure.

He who dies without being corrupted en-
joys a good old age.

The Old Philosopher, while allowing that the proper study
for mankind is man, teaches a more excellent thing, namely,
that a man should know himself, and be his own master ; for
as we are more immediately concerned with our own work in
the world than with that of others, so a knowledge of our in-
dividual selves is of greater use to us than a knowledge of
others. It is, moreover, of more consequence to others that
we should know ourselves than that we should seek to know
them, for by self-knowledge alone are we enabled to rightly
dispose ourselves in regard to others ; and then, if the know-
ledge of self should prove a difficult task, how next to im-
possible would be the task of knowing many others ! Self-
conquest, too, is preferable to the conquest of others ; and if

8o LA.OTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

every man began the work of reformation in himself, and
brought his ambitions to an end there, the whole world would
be simultaneously subdued and regulated.

-*' " He is rich who is well satisfied," says the Sage. " He is
well paid who is well satisfied," says Shakspere. The root-
cause of poverty is therefore discontent ; and if a man should
desire more than his share, another must accordingly suffer
privation. If a man's stomach is dissatisfied, it is likely that
his brain or some other part of him will go on short commons.
But a more conspicuous cause of poverty is waste, and Laotze
concludes by saying that "what is not Tao is soon wasted."
In full accord with this statement is the exhortation that we
should " lay up for ourselves treasure in Heaven," and this is
the only secure means of providing against eventual poverty.
It is the Soul-thrift of the permanent man. To progress
rapidly one must have a purpose in life ; and to be secure, one
must so work as to defy competition. If a man fills his place
in the spiritual and social economy, there can be no room there
for others, and no danger of displacement will beset him, for
there would be no rivalry. It is only when we strive to fill the
places of others that overcrowding begins. Those who are
troubled about the congestion of our great cities should regard
the vacant spaces in the country. For the privilege of buying
sixty-two per cent, of our comestibles abroad we produce
enough smoke to fill an Inferno. If we must die, let us do so
naturally, and not slowly asphyxiate ourselves.

The cause of death is corruption. If a man be corrupt, he
is dead already, and in need of a resurrection. What we call
putrefaction is only the evidence of an external death. The
man of Tao does not die. He sleeps. Death kisses him, and
makes him immortal on the instant.

THE PERFECT CONDITION 8i

XXXIV

THE PERFECT CONDITION

Mighty Tao is all-pervading.

It is simultaneously on this side and on that.

AU living things subsist from it, and aU are
in its care.

It works, it finishes, and knows not the
name of merit.

In love it nurtures aU things, and claims
no excellence therein.

It knows neither ambition nor desire.

It can be classed with the humblest of
things.

All things finally revert to it, and it is not
thereby increased.

It can be mentioned with the greatest of
things.

Thus does the wise man continually refrain
from self-distinction.

Laotze shows us how, by imitating Tao, we may attain to
real greatness. Those works which are begun and finished by
G

82 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

us without regard to merit or the fruits of labour have in them
the virtue of Tao, and may truly be called great, however
lightly the world may esteem them. It is a fact, no less
regrettable than obvious, that almost all the good work that
is done in the world is the result of constraint. The fear of
punishment or the hope of reward are the two walls of con-
straint which hedge the course of the great majority and
compel them to do something good for the community. Fear
of punishment restrains them from actual evils, and the hope
of reward stimulates them to the performance of something
which is, at all events, apparently good. But that which has
the germ of Self in it is like pleasant-looking fruit that is
rotten at the core. Every act is a child of life, and the motive
is its soul. Self, separateness, discord, and destruction : these
belong to the category of things evil. Unselfishness, unity,
harmony, and preservation : these are things that are good.
To do good for its own sake, out of goodness, is better than
doing good for one's own sake out of expediency. The hope of
Heaven and the fear of Hell have never yet produced a Saint,
but both have helped to render the world full of hypocrisy
and distrust.

XXXV

THE VIRTUE OF BOUNTY

Attain to the Great Idea, and aU the world
will flock to you.

It will flock to you and will not be hurt
therein, for it will rest in a wonderful peace.

Where there is a festival the wayfarer wiU
stay.

THE COVERT AGREEMENT 83

To the palate the Tao is insipid and tasteless.
In regarding it the eye is not impressed.
In listening to it the ear is not filled.
But in its uses it is inexhaustible.

The Great Idea is the Virtue of Tao, or Originality, Simplicity.
To attain to this virtue is to cherish without distinction, to think
without doubting, to speak without duplicity, and to act without
attachment.

The natural abandon and unconstrainedness of a festival,
where all are carried away by music and dancing into a spon-
taneous expression of their better natures, is here used by the
philosopher to illustrate the attractiveness of the Tao. Yet he
would warn us that the senses are not gratified by the virtue of
Tao. Having already shown that the virtue of a thing is in its
use — not in its form, however beautiful, and not in its material,
however rare — he adds that in regard to mere usefulness the
Tao is inexhaustible.

XXXVI

THE COVERT AGREEMENT

When Nature is about to withhold a thing it
is first sure to increase it.

When about to weaken it is first sure to
strengthen.

When about to debase it is certain first to
exalt.

84 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

When about to deprive it is first sure to give.

This is what I call the covert agreement.

The soft and the weak overcome the hard
and the strong.

As a fish out of water is in danger, so a
nation is in peril when its armaments are
revealed to the people.

The law of Compensation, everywhere observable in Nature,
has never failed to engage the minds of great thinkers, and it is
conspicuously mentioned by Laotze. The correlated successive-
ness of natural phenomena involves continual change in the
relations of things, and it is only through change of state that
the law of Compensation is free to work. That before a thing
can begin to decrease it must first reach its fulness is a self-
evident fact. If we are not content with this arrangement
we are beyond the help of Nature. If it be asked why some
enjoy a longer fulness than others, I would say that they are
more ponderable bodies and move in larger orbits. This, also,
is a matter of compensation, if we could but perceive it. They
have had their long winter of privation. It is right that they
should enjoy a long perihelion splendour. The point of attrac-
tion, the focus around which they revolve, may be centred in
some hell of human passion, but that is their sun, and they
shine by its lurid light. Others have their focus in higher
atmospheres and regions far removed from Earth. And
Heaven takes count of the whole circle of events and persons
and things, not any separate phase of the world, nor any part
of its orbit.

That "the soft and the weak overcome the hard and the
strong " is evident from the facts of Nature. Water is yielding

THE ART OF GOVERNMENT 85

and soft, but it wears away the rocks. Love is gentle and yield-
ing, but it overcomes Self, which is a very hard thing.

By this "covert agreement" between Nature and Man we
are assured that we have only to empty ourselves of things
appertaining to self in order to be filled with love for others.
" Blessed are the empty, for they shall be filled," says the Sage.
It is better to reserve one's strength than to make undue display
of it ; for those who glory in their strength are apt to make
occasion for testing it. The forces of Nature are great, but
they become exhausted. Why, then, should man make haste
to confess his inferior powers ?

XXXVII

THE ART OF GOVERNMENT

Tao remains quiescent^ and yet leaves nothing
undone.

If a ruler or a king could hold it, all things
would of their own accord assume the desired
shape.

If in the process of transformation desire
should arise, I would check it by the ineffable
simplicity.

The ineffable simplicity would bring about
an absence of desire, and rest would come
back again.

Thus the world would regenerate itself.

86 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

"The Heart of Being is celestial rest," says the Buddha,
and Laotze says, "What is celestial is by nature Tao"; and in
the twenty-first chapter of this book he says of Tao, "From
eternity till now its nature has remained unchanged ! " There-
fore in effecting things while remaining quiescent, Tao acts by
non-action. By this paradox, "acting by non-action," we are
to understand the doing of a thing without regard to its results,
from a sense of non-attachment to the fruits of action, i.e. acting
without design, spontaneously, as by nature. Thus water
flows without desiring it, and without regard to the result of its
flowing. Laotze says, "As the wind bloweth whithersoever it
listeth, so let virtue establish itself." The Christ spoke to the
same effect when He said, "The wind bloweth whithersoever
it listeth, and no man knoweth the way thereof. It is even so
with the Spirit." Therefore it appears that non-action consists
in " working without design," by the natural expression of one's
own qualities and talents when freed from all selfish motives.

XXXVIII

OF VIRTUE

The superior virtue is not recognised as such,
and it is therefore the very essence of virtue.

The inferior virtue has the distinction of
virtue, and therefore it lacks the essence.

The superior virtue is spontaneous, and
makes no claim to merit.

The inferior virtue is designing, and lays
claim to recognition.

OF VIRTUE 87

The higher benevolence acts without pre-
tension to merit.

The inferior justice acts, and also makes
pretensions.

The inferior expediency is designing, and
therefore no one honours it.

Therefore does it bare its arm and assert
itself by force.

Thus it transpires that when virtue is lost,
benevolence takes its place.

When benevolence is lost, justice ensues.

When justice is lost, then expediency follows.

But expediency is the mere shadow of what
is right and true, and is portentous of con-
fusion.

Superficial virtue is the mere tinsel of Tao,
and the fool makes use of it.

But the truly great man establishes himself
on that which is sohd, and wiU not lean upon
a shadow.

He keeps to the real, and avoids display.

He rejects the one, and takes the other
with both hands.

88 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

The philosopher here teaches that whatever is recognised as
virtuous is not essentially so. This dictum is at first difficult
to accept ; but when one comes to think of it seriously and
deeply, it glimmers in our consciousness as a point of intelli-
gence, and then blazes forth as a magnificent truth ! For if
we speak of a man as godly or kingly, we tacitly infer that
there is a distinction between God and the man who is like
unto a god, between the king and he who is like the king.
And because a semblance is not an identity, we thereby affirm
only a similarity to the real thing, a mere vestige of the true.
So that which we call virtuous is by that distinction separate
from virtue itself. We speak of benevolence as humane, there-
by recognising it as accidental to-humanity, and not an essential
virtue. We say of a monkey, " How very human it is ! " mean-
ing that although not a human, it is very like one.

This, then, is what Laotze means when he says, "The in
ferior virtue has the distinction of virtue, and therefore it lacks
the essence," a statement which is something more than a mere
sophistry. In this chapter the Old Philosopher shows the
gradual decadence of virtue, bringing it down from the essen-
tial virtue of Tao to the modern shadow of virtue which is
named " Expediency." This he rightly says is never mistaken
for virtue by the wise, and it is not honoured as such. " There-
fore it bares its arms and asserts itself by force." The modern
expedient of "enforcing the law" is a fair example of the
Shadow of Virtue. But men have grown to be so timid in
themselves, so frightened of one another, that they are easily
frighted by shadows. When a man is not himself genuine,
shadows become to him what real things are to the wise and
virtuous.

TRACING THE SOURCE 89

XXXIX

TRACING THE SOURCE

Certain things have, by unity, lasted from
most ancient times, namely : —

The transparency of Heaven ;

The steadfastness of Earth ;

The incorporeality of spirits ;

The watery plenitude of valleys ;

The life of all creations ;

The government of kings and princes ;

All these endure by unity.

But for the cause of its transparency Heaven
would be in danger of obscuration.

But for the cause of its steadfastness the
Earth would be in danger of disintegration.

But for the cause of their incorporeality
spirits would be in danger of decease.

But for the cause of their plenitude the
valleys would be in danger of sterility.

But for the cause of their vitality all
creations would be in danger of destruction.

90 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

But for the cause of their honour and great-
ness princes and kings would be in danger of
an overthrow.

Herein we see how honour is derived from
that which is without distinction ; and how
greatness rests upon, and is sustaiaed by, that
which is insignificant.

Hence do princes and kings call themselves
"orphans," "sohtary men," and "chariots
without wheels."

Do they not thereby acknowledge their
authority to be vested in, and supported by,
their superiors ?

Who can deny it ?

Surely " a chariot without wheels " is no
chariot at all 1

It is as hard for a man to be isolated like a
single gem ais to be lost in the crowd like
a common pebble.

"^ Having shown that Tao, the source of all virtue, is un-
recognised and without distinction, Laotze now indicates how
the virtue of all things is sustained by their unity, which is
the essential attribute of Tao. Things endure by reason of
their unity, or rather by reason of their unitedness. That

TRACING THE SOURCE 91

which is harmonious and which blends in unison has in it
the elements of endurance. But that which is separate and
in discord is doomed to destruction by that very disagreement
of its elements.

" A house divided against itself cannot stand."

The philosopher further shows that things derive their virtue
from that which supports and sustains them. Thus a king is
king by reason of his being the chief subject. While the
people are in accord with him and with one another, he governs.
For if the people are divided among themselves he cannot be
said to govern them, and if the people do not acknowledge the
king, it is only because he does not govern himself. If a man
cannot govern himself he certainly can never govern others.
As the head rests upon the body and governs it, being at the
same time nourished and sustained by the body, so the king
rests upon the people.

All things are sustained and nourished by Tao, the unrecog-
nised and inconspicuous, and therefore whatsoever is dis-
tinguished from Tao is by that circumstance rendered liable
to destruction on account of non-unity. Wherefore a king
should not be separate from his people, but should regard
himself as the chief subject. If he can govern that, he will
have no trouble with the rest.

The teaching of the Gitk on this subject is curiously similar
to the teaching of our author, and the same simile is employed,
the nation being compared to a chariot, the integrity of which
does not rest in any one part of its constitution, but in all
its parts working together. What holds them together are
the insignificant pieces which generally escape notice. That
which holds the universe together is the virtue of unity in Tao.

92 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

XL

RESIGNING WORK

The path of Tao is backward.

The characteristic of Tao is gentleness.

Everything in the universe conies from
existence, and existence from non-existence.

This, the shortest chapter of all written by the Philosopher,
is well named by the commentators. Two of the three stanzas
have been reiterated time after time in the course of this work.
" The course of Tao is retrograde." This is a perplexing and
seemingly paradoxical statement.

We have already seen that "all things die down to their
root." But Tao has no root, and therefore it cannot be said
of Tao that it dies down, for it is in itself the root of every-
thing, and all .things finally go back to it.

In what way, then, is the Path of Tao "retrograde"? In
this wise : Tao itself, being boundless and immovable, cannot
at any time be said to progress or retrogress. The Absolute
has no procedure. When we speak of the Path or Way of
Tao, we mean that course of human life and thought which
leads to Tao. This path, from the point of view of embodied
humanity, is retrograde. It is opposed to the course of human
polity, it is contrary to the trend of civilisation. He who takes to
this Path of Tao must go back whence he came ; he must revert
to his original simplicity and re-become a little child. All the
great world teachers have cried out upon the corruptions of so-
called civilisation. They have shown the incompatibility of
the Path of Virtue and the " way of the world," and they have

LIKE AND UNLIKE 93

laid down in no uncertain words the only means of attaining
the Simple Life.

To quote only so much as may be received upon the authority
of Scripture, " Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted
and become as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom
of heaven." The simplicity, candour, disinterestedness, and
faith of childhood are incompatible with the polity of nations ;
and there is no condition in the civilised world to-day wherein
the precepts of the Nazarene could be attempted with any
measure of success. The Path of Tao leads backward against
the order of what is known as social progress. It leads in
the direction of simplicity of life, not towards complexity and
elaboration. The standards of respectability, of social import-
ance, of commercial stability and professional status, are as
false as they are difficult to attain, or when reached, to main-
tain. The standard of true virtue, of the simple life, is so easy
of attainment that one has only to let go and he will fall into it
naturally and without effort. The difficulty is in letting go, so
electrified is the world by the idea of possession.

" Having emptied yourself of everything," says our author,
" remain where you are." This is called " going Home " ; and,
as we have seen, the path we have to take is that which leads
backward. This is the Path of Tao.

XLI

LIKE AND UNLIKE

When a wise man hears the Tao, he follows it.

When one of average mind hears it, he
holds to it a while and presently loses it.

94 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

When a foolish man hears it, he only laughs
at it.

If it were not held in derision by such men,
it could not rightly be called Tao.

Therefore, as the verse-makers would say: —

Who shines with Tao is lost in shade ;
His path in Tao is retrograde,
And all his actions are obscure.
The highest virtue has no name.
The greatest pureness seems but shame ;
True wisdom seems the least secure.
Inherent goodness seems most strange ;
What most endures is changeless Change ;
And squareness doth no angles make.
The largest vessel none can gird ;
The loudest voice was never heard ;
The greatest thing no form doth take.

For Tao is hidden, and it has no name ; but
it is good at beginning and finishing.

The author here shows the different moods in which the
doctrine is received by men of various degrees of intelligence.
Only the truly wise, the pure-hearted, hear the doctrine and
hold to it. To be esteemed by the wise and scorned by the
foolish and worldly is the guarantee of real worth. The parable
of the Sower (Mark iv. 14-20) is in support of this observation
of our author.

In this chapter Laotze falls into verse after the manner of

LIKE AND UNLIKE 95

other Chinese writers of that period. The Shi-king comprises
all the ancient poetry of China. Originally it contained 311
odes, selected by Confucius out of some 3,000, but six of them
have since been lost. The lines consist mostly of four words,
and there are 7,374 hnes, or about 29,500 words in the Shi-
king. In this example of the verse of that period, Laotze says
that true virtue shines in obscurity, i.e. where it is most needed ;
that the virtuous man " goes back to his Home in peace," and
observes self-restraint and humility. The highest virtue, being
a property of Tao, is not recognised- as virtue, and therefore
has no name, while that which was natural to the pristine
purity of the race is recognised as shameful because of the
perverted nature of men's minds ; and in the same manner
true wisdom is not relied upon for guidance, nor does it meet
with any recognition in the world. " Inherent goodness " seems
strange indeed to a condition of society which is honeycombed
with deceits and subterfuges, veneered with shams and ostenta-
tions, and wholly given over to selfishness, greed of gain, false
standards of respectability, and prurient corruption. In the
midst of all this shufHing of life's kaleidoscope, the broken
pieces of coloured glass are made to fall into new and ever
beautiful forms of symmetry, so that the world is always new
and attractive, and always false and delusive !

All things will pass, this is a world of Change ; -
Nothing endures, but caught on Life's great wheel,

Old worlds evane, and stars both new and strange
Ascend the heaven of Time for good or ill.

But as Laotze here reminds us, Tao is " good at beginning
and finishing." That which begins and finishes is the cause of
existence. "Everything in the universe comes from Exist-
ence," he says, "and Existence from Non-Existence." The
Non-Existent is the Deity. Whatever has existence must
change and perish. Only the Non-Existent is imperishable
and unchangeable, and to that which subsists, unchanged and
imperishable, the eternal Life, Intelligence and Substance of

96 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

all existences, we give the name of Deity. We have therein
great reason to bewail our limitations.

"That which was before Heaven and Earth is called the
Non- Existent," and it is that which begins and finishes all
existences, being "good" throughout. Indeed, if God be not
good at beginning and finishing, who shall attempt the work ?
Good as Creator, good as Preserver, and good as Restorer ;
verily, God is good and great in all His works, and His name
is ineffable !

XLII

THE CHANGES OF TAO

Tao emaned the One ; the one emaned the
Two ; and the two emaned the Three.

From the Three all things have proceeded.

All things are backed by the Unmanifest
and faced by the Manifest.

That which unites them is the immaterial
breath.

Orphanage, isolation, and a chariot without
wheels are shunned by the people ; but kings
and great men appropriate these names to
themselves.

For things are increased by being deprived ;
and being added to they are diminished.

THE CHANGES OF TAO 97

That which people teach by their actions
I make use of to instruct them.

Those who are violent and headstrong, for
example, do not die a natural death.

They teach a good lesson, and so I make
use of them.

The Theogony of Taoism is simplicity itself, and by that
virtue is characteristic of the whole doctrine. The One (Tao)
emaned the Two (Heaven and Earth), and these two emaned
the Three (Heaven, Earth, and Humanity).

By Heaven we understand all that is spiritual in its nature,
and by Earth all that is material. Man, compounded of
heavenly and earthly natures, is at once a spiritual involution
and a natural evolution — spiritual as to his soul, and natural
as to his body.

This is the ancient doctrine which preceded the Shintoism
of the twelfth century B.C., and it appears to have been the
sole religion of China under the successive rulers of the
Patriarchal dynasty — Fuh-hi, Shin-nung, Hwang-ti, Shaou-
haou, Chuen-hia, Ti-ko, Che, Yaou, and Shun. It remained
in more or less of its natural purity through the succeeding
dynasties of Hia and Shang, and was consistently taught as
part of the ancient doctrine by the founders of the Chow
dynasty, Wan-wang and Wu-wang. It was not until the times
immediately prior to the birth of Laotze that a marked spiritual
decadence was observable in China ; and of this more will be
said in the concluding part of the present work.

"That which unites them," says Laotze, speaking of the
Three Emanations, "is the immaterial Breath." This term
has a peculiar signification throughout the philosophies of the
world, and its employment in this place is of great interest.

In the Indian philosophy we find the name Brahma given to

98 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

the Creator. It is derived from the root brih, " to expand,"
and from this we have the English verb " to breathe." The
Hebrew words ab and abba, i.e. " father," have the same signifi-
cation, while the Hebrew bra, "creation," is undoubtedly a
cognate of the Sanskrit word brih. In the Genesis we have
the expression, Ruach Elohim merecha'peth ol pent hamayim,
i.e. "the Breath of God fluttered upon the face of the waters."
The Logos, Verbum, or Word, has the same connotation, and
by the Word, Voice, or Breath of God all things were made.
Conceivably this " breath " is a living, quickening force, work-
ing in the original essence of things to the production of forms
of life. Those who are acquainted with the phenomena of
sound-forms will understand more clearly than others how the
"Voice of the Silence" underlies all manifestations of life.

Laotze is frequently reiterative, and in this chapter he again
speaks of the "greatness of humility" and "the fulness of
privation." It has already been noted (Chapter XXVII.) that
foolishness instructs wisdom, and here we may note how the
philosopher avails himself of such instruction for the service of
others. In this there is a divine economy, which finds a use
for that which is apparently useless.

XLIII

UNLIMITED USEFULNESS

The gentlest thing in the world "will override
the strongest.

The Non - Existent pervades everything,
though there be no inlet.

By this I comprehend how effectual is non-
action.

STANDING STILL 99

To teach without words and to be useful
without action, few among men are capable
of this.

There is nothing gentler in the universe than God's love
toward men. By that love all things whatsoever are sustained
and nourished and preserved. No man, however strong or
great, can so provide for the teeming life of even this our
Earth, insignificant though it be in comparison with the ampli-
tudes of space. The atmosphere, which enfolds and nourishes
all forms of life with imperceptible gentleness, can on occasion
gather its strength and go forth in irresistible power, uprooting
trees, devastating cities, overturning towers and monuments,
destroying bridges, wrecking ships, and dealing out death and
destruction in all directions, It is not thus, however, that its
greatest strength is shown, but in the gentle and silent work of
sustaining life, wherein wealth and power and giant strength
would prove wholly ineffectual. Nature teaches without words ;
Heaven is useful without action. The unnatural and ungodly
do not attain to this perfection of virtue.

XLIV

STANDING STILL

Which is the nearer to you, your name or
your person ?

Which is the more precious, your person or
your wealth ?

100 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

Which is the greater evil, to gain or to lose ?
Great devotion requires great sacrifice.
Great wealth implies great loss.
He who is content can never be ruined.
He who stands still will never meet danger.
These are the people who endure.

"Is not the life more than meat, and the body more than
raiment?" the Master enquired of His disciples in the same
spirit that Laotze is moved to this catechism. Life is more
than meat or raiment, and the body is more than name or
reputation.

" What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and
lose his own soul? What shall a man give in exchange for
his soul?" If we are greatly devoted to worldly honours or
to wealth, we must be prepared to make great sacrifices, for
it is certain that sooner or later we shall be required to yield
both honours and wealth. Wherefore, if one be content with
his lot, and reconciled to all changes that may occur therein,
he can never suffer by reversal of position nor by access of
good fortune. And if the violent and headstrong are in danger
of a violent death, they who stand still will escape such danger.
Death is so certainly a consequence of life, that there is no
need to go forward in haste to meet it.

Abandoning all attachment to the things of life, one becomes
non-attached to life itself, and the ultimate cessation of life
appears as no privation. The case is so obvious that one
wonders at the persistent reiteration of the doctrine by the
great teachers. The trouble is that the world remains un-
impressed by their teaching.

INDEFINITE VIRTUE loi

XLV

INDEFINITE VIRTUE

He who sees that his highest attainments are
always incomplete may go on working in-
definitely.

He who sees his greatest possessions to be
inadequate may go on acquiring for ever.

His highest rectitude is but crookedness.

His greatest wisdom is but fooKshness.

His sweetest eloquence is but stammering.

Action overcomes cold ; inaction overcomes
heat.

With virtue and quietness one may conquer
the world.

Human attainments at their very best are but comparative
failures. They all fall short of perfection. With eternity
before us we may go on eternally acquiring. What we know,
in comparison with what is possibly knowable, is as a grain of
sand in a desert. Sir Isaac Newton, in his last moments, spoke
of himself as " a little child playing with the pebbles on the
sea-shore," while the whole ocean of Truth lay wholly un-
explored before him ! How thoroughly refreshing is this
childlike humility which attaches to the really great mind 1

I02 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

When a man comes to this conclusion he is in the right
frame of mind to begin learning.

The wise in all ages have recognised that individual freewill
and responsibility, and therefore also individual merit, lie rather
in the mental attitude that we assume towards the affairs of life
than in the affairs themselves. Men are not the makers, but
only the users of circumstance. Before a man can control the
course of events in regard to himself he must first negative
the effects of all antecedent causes, and then must be able to
control his own attitude in regard to his own environment.
For it is a logical axiom that character and environment make
up human destiny. That being so, there is nothing left save
that the mental attitude towards the affairs of life renders it
possible for one to fulfil its duties, acquire wealth and position,
attain honour and learning, without attachment ; that is to say,
without being involved in all the consequences of action.

This mental attitude is the means of discriminating between
what is an essential and what an accidental of life. And when
a man discerns his crookedness he is by that discernment
assured of essential rectitude. When he sees his best attain-
ments to be incomplete, he is by that perception rendered
capable of perfectability. It is only when ignorance and
wickedness are not recognised as such that they are so deeply
perverting.

Laotze compares action with use or virtue {ieh) and stillness
to self-restraint ; and by means of these two, virtue and self-
restraint, he says the world may be conquered. For since by
these we may conquer the self, the world is simultaneously
conquered. By self-conquest we are able to regulate our
mental attitude towards all things and persons, controlling
them by our own self-control. When the world finds it cannot
dispose of a thing, it generally ends by using and esteem-
ing it. That is why mankind is certain to come back to the
simplicity of Nature, and Tao.

CURBING DESIRE 103

XLVI

CURBING DESIRE

When Tao is in the world, horses are used in
the pasture land.

When Tao has left the world, chargers are
reared in the wUderness.

There is no greater sin than indulging desire.

There is no greater pain than discontent.

There is nothing more disastrous than the
gi'eed of gain.

Hence the satisfaction of contentment is an
everlasting competence.

The universal utility of the horse in the arts of peace and
war has led writers in all ages to make reference to it and to
employ it as a symbol, sometimes to denote the passions of
men when wild, wayward, and unbridled ; frequently indicating
utility, the conspicuous quality of the horse when properly
trained and harnessed ; and sometimes symbolising the spiritual
condition of man. Latterly there has been a disposition among
civilised nations to abandon the horse in favour of mechanical
modes of draught and conveyance, steam-engines, tramcars
driven by means of electricity, cable, and steam, oil and electric
motor-cars and bicycles following one another in quick suc-
cession. The friend of man seemed in danger of an universal
disparagement. But Nature laid hold of the passions of men
to befriend the dumb animal, and worked a wonder in its own
quiet way. It first brought the great planets together in the

104 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

sign of the Scorpion, gathering together all that it was able
of the forces in the solar system, and bringing them into array
against the great Dragon and the greed of gain it was held
to signify. The Sun, the Moon, Uranus, Saturn, Mars, and
Mercury answered to the call, and with these " stars in their
courses" Nature stirred up in appropriate places the elements
of greed, ambition, lust, and discord. And four years later
(in December, 1899) all these occursers were brought together
again in the sign of the Horseman, and the value of horses
was nearly doubled ! For when Tao leaves the world to its
own resources, one may trust men of the world to put prices
up all round ! From this piece of astrological reasoning one
may be led to consider whether, after all. Nature is not always
and altogether on the side of peace and gentleness. Certainly
when man begins to disparage Nature and the things which
she has provided for his use, and when he goes about in-
venting new methods of living, stimulating old appetites by
new sensations, then Nature begins to rouse herself and assert
her ancient rights.

"There is no greater sin than indulging desire and no greater
pain than discontent," says our author. Indulging desire under
the pretext of redressing wrongs is a thing of daily happening.
To put recent history very plainly, one may say, without much
fear of contradiction, that if Armenia had possessed a reef or
two of workable gold, a diamond mine, or anything of greater
commercial value than Mount Ararat to call its own, its wrongs
would long since have been avenged and even redressed. If
the Transvaal had only its farm-produce on which to rely for
its revenues, would Great Britain have spent one hundred and
thirty millions sterling in overturning its corrupt Government ?
I do not pretend to understand these things, but I have noticed
that no wrongs are so speedily redressed as those which are
done to the rich and powerful. Yet I have seen the sorrows
of a poor man assuaged and the sores of a Lazarus healed
more quickly than those of a prince, which I consider to be
a remarkable fact. But then, one was obviously nearer to the
heart of Nature than the other.

LOOKING ABROAD 105

XLVII

LOOKING ABROAD

A MAN may know the world without leaving
his own home.

Through his windows he can see the supreme
Tao.

The further afield he goes the less likely is
he to find it.

Therefore the wise man knows without
travelling, names things without seeing them,
and accomplishes everything without action.

It may be that Laotze is here speaking in terms of human
nature, indicating that self-knowledge will suffice for all worldly
experience, and that Tao is to be found within oneself by means
of introspection, and attained by contentment and non-action,
as already indicated in preceding chapters. Or, on the other
hand, he may be speaking in terms of supernormal perception,
to which. reference has been made in these commentaries in
connection with the science of Yoga, which is the union of the
human soul with the Divine Being, and of the body with
Nature, the complete " at onement."

The belief in the possibility of attaining supernormal powers
is everywhere current in the East, and in India the science by
which these faculties [siddhis), presumably latent in all human
beings, are brought into activity and under the control of the
will is called Yoga, i.e. Union. The word is derived from the

io6 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

root yuj, " to join," equivalent to the Latin jugum; and from
the Sanskrit yoga we obtain the English word " yoke," to join
together.

There are two chief aspects of this science, both of which
have their advocates and adherents throughout India at the
present day. The one is Hathayoga, which seeks to enlarge
the mental faculties by control of the physical functions ; and
the other is called Rdjyoga, and aims at the complete subjection
of all the faculties by steadying the mind and directing it to the
contemplation of spiritual subjects, and finally to God.

The former system proceeds by a number of religious austeri-
ties to acquire an indifference to pleasure and pain, which
state is called vairhgya. It then seeks to obtain phenomenal
control over the physical functions by means of the science of
breathing {sward), and finally it emerges in the display of a
number of phenomenal powers {siddhis), such as reversing the
polarity of the body so as to produce levitation, suspending
animation by control of the breath {samcidhi), abstaining en-
tirely from food, and having complete mastery of the physical
functions. Such Bairkgis are turned out by India in swarms at
all her great festivals, and form a truly pitiable and revolting
spectacle.

Rdjyoga proceeds by two chief means to the attainment of its
objective, namely, by vidya, or knowledge, and by bhakti, or
devotion, both being effected by religious and philosophical
contemplation. To this, or a very similar school of practice,
our author appears to have belonged. Among the religio-
philosophical cults of the West, Gnosticism appears to have
embraced a very similar system of thought and practice.

I suppose there is nothing better attested in the world than
the existence, in certain individuals, of abnormal or super-
normal faculties. The mere existence to-day of the common
conjurer and the professional clairvoyant is a priori evidence of
the past existence, in rare cases, of the genuine faculty. Pinch-
beck would never have been invented had not gold been so
highly esteemed. Scripture is abundant in recital of these

LOOKING ABROAD 107

instances of supernormal faculty, and, indeed, it would appear
that great teachers in all ages have made appeal to the minds
of their followers by means of that most powerful of all evi-
dence — the evidence of the senses. They did not, however,
omit to characterise the witnesses at the same time as an
ignorant, perverse, and faithless generation. For, after all, it
will be seen that such evidence is not in any way a guarantee
of the truth of a doctrine. If one should say that reasoning is
of two kinds, deductive and inductive, that would not demon-
strate the specific gravity of iron, or determine the ratio of the
diameter of a circle to its circumference. And if one is able to
perform what is called a " miracle " — a thing of wonder — he is
not thereby entitled to claim more than an extraordinary know-
ledge of natural laws. It gives him no title to any degree of
spiritual authority, and warning of this necessity for discern-
ment is conveyed in the following words of Scripture : " For
there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and they shall
show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were pos-
sible, they shall deceive the very elect."

Scientific statements require scientific proofs ; mathematical
statements require mathematical proofs ; logical statements
require logical proofs ; and in the same manner spiritual state-
ments can only be tested by spiritual standards and evidence.
Whether our philosopher had, by spiritual exaltation or other
means, attained to yogic powers there is no evidence to show ;
but from the last line of this chapter it is evident that he knew
of the existence of such powers.

Whatever is the subject of reason is also the subject of doubt,
for we only reason concerning that which is not obvious. In-
tuition, which may be called the higher sense of spiritual
cognition, sees and knows by direct perception, and is altogether
distinct in its operations from either the sense or reason.

But perhaps Laotze is speaking mystically, and means no
more than this. By knowledge of Tao we know the essence of
things ; their externals are mere details. By knowledge of Tao
we know the qualities of things ; their names are simply adjuncts

io8 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

for the purpose of distinction. By knowledge of Tao we pro-
duce results without further action, for having attained Tao we
have effected everything. Learning is the perception of differ-
ences. Wisdom is the perception of similarities. The final
statement of wisdom must be : Omnia sunt unutn in Deo.

XLVIII

THE DISTRESS OF KNOWLEDGE

Bodily and mental distress is increased every
day in the effort to get knowledge.

But this distress is daily diminished by the
getting of Tao.

Do you continually curtail your effort tUl
there be nothing of it left ?

By non-action there is nothing which cannot
be ejffected.

A man might, without the least distress,
undertake the government of the world.

But those who distress themselves about
governing the world are not fit for it.

The quest of knowledge is indeed a distressful thing, and
after all knowledge wholly consists in the perception of differ-
ences. There is, in the very nature of it, no possible end to the
task; and there is hence no satisfaction. Giordano Bruno says
in his Delia Causa Prituipio ed Uno (" Concerning the First and

THE DISTRESS OF KNOWLEDGE 109

only Cause") : " The omnipotence of Deity is better expressed
in the production of an infinite variety of worlds of various
dimensions than in the production of a single world of infinite
dimensions." And if man's intelligence cannot grasp all things
included in the life of this little world of ours, how can he hope
to exhaust the infinite multitude of things comprised in the life
of an apparently boundless universe of worlds ? How can the
finite comprehend the Infinite ?

Laotze says that it may be done by a knowledge of the Tao.
There are things which are hid from the wise and prudent and
revealed unto babes. Tao is of this nature. The knowledge
of it is compassed by Simplicity. If a man inflates himself
with an incessant stuffing down of knowledge, what room is
there left for Tao ? Shall the world go on continually increas-
ing its pace in the race for life ? Must the struggle for existence
become ever fiercer and sterner than of old ? Or shall we not
emerge suddenly, as by a great revulsion of feeling, from the
heat and madness of the strife, starting at the whispered word,
" Where is Abel, thy brother f^' Enough! enough! Tell us
the end of all this, ye pioneers of modern civilisation, and let
us say whether we see any hope of attainment your way. If
necessity be the whetstone of intelligence, it is certain that it
can sharpen a sword or a guillotine as readily as a pruning-
hook or a sickle ! Let us be careful and respectfully cautious,
for this intelligence of ours is a dangerous thing.

Withal, Laotze appears to be justified by the Spirit of Truth,
for he is not alone among the teachers of the world who have
foreseen the distress of knowledge and abuse of wealth.
Another and a higher advocate of the doctrine of Simplicity
said at a later date, " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."
Laotze is true to the spirit of the ages also when he says of the
kingdom of heaven, " The further a man goes in search of it,
the less likely is he to find it." Here is his warrant and testi-
mony : " If any man shall say, 'Lo here ! ' or 'Lo there ! ' believe
him not. . . . The kingdom of heaven is within you."

no LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

XLIX

THE VIRTUE OF CONCESSION

The wise man has no fixed opinions to call
his own.

He accommodates himself to the minds of
others.

I would return good for good ; I would
also return good for evil.

Virtue is good.

I would meet trust with trust ; I would
likewise meet suspicion with confidence.

Virtue is trustful.

The wise man lives in the world with
modest restraint, and his heart goes out in
sympathy to all men.

The people give him their confidence, and
he regards them aU as his children.

One has only to express ignorance of anything, and there are
at once hundreds who are ready to inform him fully. Opinions
are as numerous as the pebbles on the shore, and as various.
They are also equally cheap ! It is the scarcity of things that

THE VIRTUE OF CONCESSION in

gives them their value and makes them greatly esteemed.
That is why, in an enlightened age, simplicity is more esteemed
than learning, and the humble are better served than kings.

Observe the restraint with which the learned approach their
equals in knowledge. With what distrust they regard one
another ; how carefully they weigh their words ; how they
fence with one another for an advantage, and with what
meagreness they exude their drops of learned nectar under
pressure, as if one were abstracting milk from cheese ! But
they are otherwise in the presence of the child-like and simple-
minded. These they gladly fill with gratuitous information,
giving of their best in princely fashion ! It is, therefore, better
to empty oneself of all preconceptions, and become teachable
and simple-minded. Why should one trouble to form opinions
of one's own when all the world is ready to bring them to him
ready made ? And as so many are concerned in the making,
so much the greater variety is there to choose from. And if
men will not supply one's deficiency, perchance Nature will ;
for it is observed that she spends much time in filling up empty
spaces, having a distaste for the vacuous. But if even Nature
will not do it for one, then the Infinite Goodness must indeed
compassion us ; for it is said : " Blessed are the empty, for they
shall be filled 1 " Perchance this were the better way, that
one should be filled with goodness and virtue and the essentials
of knowledge from the Source of Wisdom and Virtue, than
that he should be filled through a variety of channels with
knowledge in which there is no essential virtue.

Having nothing to call one's own, a man can give generously
without incurring the risk of merit ; he can trust all, since none
can rob him ; and he can return good for evil and lose nothing
in the act. Why not give up to God and Nature what is already
their own ? We cannot deny the debt ; why should we go about
to increase it, making it ever more and more difficult to pay
back and regain our freedom ?

112 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

L

THE VALUE OF LIFE

Men go forth from Life and enter into Death.
The Gates of Life are thirteen in number ;
and the same are the Gates of Death,

By as many wjtes does Life pass quickly
into Death, And wherefore ?

Because men strive only after the Sensuous
Life.

It has been said that one who knows how
to safeguard Life can go through the country
without protection against the rhinoceros and
tiger. I '

He may ente^ into* battle without fear of
the sword.

The rhinoceros finds no place wherein to
drive his horn. '

The tiger finds no place wherein to fix his
claws.

The sword finds no place wherein to thrust
itself.

Why is this ?

It is because he has overcome Death.

THE VALUE OF LIFE 113

This chapter contains two allegories : that which concerns
Life as the Gate of Death, and that which relates to Death
as the Gate of Life. Laotze uses the symbol of Kwan-yin, the
Mother of Humanity, Nature. The thirteen gates are the thir-
teen orifices of the female body. The Mystics divide them thus :
The Higher Septenary, comprising the orifices of the head —
the two eyes, the two ears, the two nostrils and the mouth.
The Superior Natural Triad, comprising the two breasts and
the navel. The Lower Natural Triad, comprising the two
organs of excretion and the organ of generation.

By so many Gates mankind enters into the knowledge of
earthly life, and " the same are the Gates of Death.'' St. Paul,
in his luminous address to the Corinthians on the nature of the
resurrection, shows that man is concerned in life and death
with two bodies — "a natural body and a spiritual body." Of
the natural body he says : " It is sown in corruption and dis-
honour." Of the spiritual body he says : " It is raised in glory
and incorruption."

By the body of Nature we are born into Death, and by the
body of the Spirit we are born into Life. For Life is the
attribute of the Spirit, and, Death is that of the body. There-
fore our author says : " Men go forth from life and enter into
death," and on the other hand he says of Tao : " It goes forth
and enters into Itself!" It is incorruptible and unchangeable.

If one would safeguard life, it is first necessary that he should
distinguish between the living and the dead ; and having given
up that which is corrupt and full of dishonour, he will be able
to lay hold on eternal verities and become a vessel of life infilled
by the Eternal Spirit, which is the Tap, the Truth and the Life.
The second parable employs the familiar illustrations of the East
as related to the causes of death. The rhinoceros represents
the selfishness of the pushful and thick-skinned individual who
knows only his own desires and will have his own way even
at the cost of suffering in others. The tiger symbolises the
passions of man, the predatory stealth and watchfulness which
is allied to bloodthirstiness and fierceness of spirit. The sword
I

114 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

denotes strife and dissension, the severing of ties that are
natural to human Hfe. When the Sage says that the man who
can take care of life will not be hurt by any of these things, he
means that one who cherishes the immortal spirit will not be
touched by any of the causes of death, because he has overcome
death in having overcome himself. As an Oriental Scripture
says : " Slain tigers cannot turn and rend you ! "

LI

CHERISHING VIRTUE

Tao brings forth, and Teh nourishes.

All things take up their several forms, and
natural forces bring them to perfection.

Therefore all things conspire to exalt Tao
and to cherish virtue.

But this regard of Tao and Teh is not in
deference to any mandate.

It is unconstrained, and therefore it endures
for ever.

For Tao produces all things, and Teh
nourishes, increases, feeds, matures, protects,
and watches over them.

^ To produce without possessing; to work
without expecting ; to enlarge without usurp-
ing ; this is the subhme virtue I

CHERISHING VIRTUE iij

All things whatsoever are exalted in their several virtues. It
is the virtue ( Tefi) of Tao to produce, and it is therefore exalted
in its productions. It is the Teh (virtue or special aptitude) of
Nature to cherish and sustain those productions, and by this
cherishing it is exalted. For the Creator has honour in His
creatures, the king has honour in his subjects, the mother has
honour in her children, and the teacher has honour in his pupils.

But man, who produces nothing, but only uses or abuses
things as he finds them, takes the honour and credit of action,
of possession, and of increase to himself, because he has missed
his mark and lost his virtue, and is running after things which
do not concern him. He puts together this and that and calls
it an invention, securing it to himself by letters patent, taking
glory in it as if it were a thing new-sprung from the womb of
Nature. But if heaven produces this and that and cements
them with an idea, we may rightly regard the whole thing as a
divine combination, and not anything in which man has any
proprietory rights. Philanthropy and altruism are out of date,
and so the particular form of food that is advertised as contain-
ing " all things necessary for sustaining life " is certain to be a
patent yielding a profit of anything over twenty-five per cent,
profit to its manufacturer or proprietor. But we have a right
to wonder whether mankind is so greatly benefited by these
complexities of machinery and dividends. Where shall we
find productiveness without the desire to possess, industry
without hope of reward, enlargement of the sphere of activity
without usurpation of the rights of others? Yet one may see
men and women by hundreds working for years in succession
at their several "hobbies," taking their satisfaction in the mere
act, and looking for no ulterior reward. Some of the greatest
works on record have been done in what we call " spare time,''
and done without thought of fame or remuneration. One sees
the same thing in the divine offices of motherhood, wherein
each successive day is filled with the same ungrudging care
for the offspring, with ever new sacrifices and ever growing
love, through all the long years of pain and tribulation. And

ii6 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

only one thing is certain to the mother's heart. Each day of
such maternal care gives the child additional strength to stand
alone. Each day takes it another step further from the mother's
side. Yet the mother, knowing this, helps it 1

" Great devotion requires great sacrifice," says the Sage, and
it is consoling to see that in spite of all the injustice and greed
and vanity of the world, humanity is capable of great devotion,
and also of great sacrifice.

LII

GOING BACK TO THE CAUSE

That from which the universe sprang may be
looked upon as its Mother.

By knowing the Mother you have access to
the child.

And if, knowing the chUd, you prefer the
Mother, though your body perish, yet you
wiU come to no harm.

Keep your mouth shut, and close up the
doors of sight and sound, and as long as you
live you wiU have no vexation.

But open your mouth, or become inquisitive,
and you wiU be in trouble all your Ufe long.

To perceive things in the germ is intelligence.

To remain gentle is to be invincible.

GOING BACK TO THE CAUSE 117

Follow the light that guides you homeward,
and do not get lost in the darkness.

This I call using the eternal.

It will be remembered that Laotze has already spoken of
Existence as the first Emanation : " The One emaned the
two," that is to say, the First Great Cause produced Heaven
and Earth, or Spirit and Matter. This Spirit, as the First
Existence, he calls the "Mother" of all things. Iji the sixth
chapter he says : " Like the river of the valley, the Spirit is
never dried up. I call it the Mother-deep."

By Spirit-Matter, or " Heaven and Earth," we must under-
stand the whole of Nature, noumenal and phenomenal, visible
and invisible.

By the union of Heaven and Earth mankind is bom into the
world, being compounded of the flesh and the Spirit. Where-
fore, as Laotze says, by knowing Nature we have access to
her offspring, and if, knowing the latter (humanity), we prefer
Nature, we shall come to no harm.

The Old Philosopher goes on to illustrate the great amount of
trouble involved in depending on the sense-perceptions. Our
senses are deceived by their own limitations, our reason is
assailed by doubts, and our minds are led astray by lying
sophistries. Speech, originally a means of expressing our
natural feelings, is now a fine art too frequently used only to
simulate feelings which we do not possess, or to cloak those
which we do not wish to reveal. Hence there is a lack of
spontaneity in human relations. The influence of this art of
simulation upon the individual and national character is of a
most subtle, pernicious, and enduring nature. It culminates in
that particular form of self-deception which is quickly followed
by complete loss of faith in one's own ideals and principles, and
a plunge into spiritual degeneracy — a soul-suicide — the dread
consequence of this habit of mental and moral intoxication.

ii8 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

And when a man has lost faith in himself he will not show any
faith in others, which is another aspect of the fact that " where
faith is lacking it is not met with trust." That repudiation
of our brotherhood, which first fell from the lips of the man
" Cain," has spread its cancerous roots through the world to
such an extent that the preservation of individual integrity is
hardly possible except by a degree of isolation wholly un-
natural to 'man. To the spiritual eye the world appears to
be filled with mummers, moving stealthily about among the
shadows, masked and muffled and cloaked like so many
conspirators. And they call this evil-looking Society the
" Brotherhood of Man " !

We are in danger of losing our way in the darkness.
" Follow the light that leads you home," says the Sage ;
follow the original doctrine of Simplicity ; follow the Light
of the World, which shineth in the darkness and is not com-
prehended, the true light that lighteth every man when he
cometh into the world. Little children have this light ; it is
in their eyes, in every fibre of their being ; they are filled
with it, and radiate it like a golden halo. Who that is not
blind has not seen it ? Every man has it ; but many stand
in fear of it, lest it should reveal them to themselves for
what they are, and so they hide it away under a bushel. It
is the source of their infant goodness, purity, and truth. It is
their original Simplicity.

LIII

INCREASING EVIDENCE

Ah that I were wise enough to follow the
great Tao 1

Administration is a great undertaking.

INCREASING THE EVIDENCE 119

The great Tao is extremely simple, but the
people prefer the complex ways.

While the palace is extremely well ap-
pointed, the fields may be full of tares, and
the granaries may be empty.

To dress grandly, to carry sharp swords, to
eat and drink excessively, and to amass great
wealth, this I call stylish theft.

That it is not Tao is certain.

It is evident that the Old Philosopher had it in his heart
to be a great reformer, but his doctrine forbade any such inter-
ference with human polity. The management of such reforms
as are necessary in the world he would wisely leave to God.
He perceived that the complexity of life first of all arose from
the conflict between the higher and lower natures of man,
from the effort to accommodate the human to the bestial and
the spiritual to the carnal. He wisely discerned between the
essential good in man and the accidental evil in his life. He
saw man in equilibrium, and therefore in freedom ; in freedom,
and therefore in conflict — which latter he saw to arise from the
insecurity of freedom to the individual. He saw mankind
inclining to evil in the pursuit of wealth, position, fame, and
power ; and this meant that man was in danger of losing the
freedom into which he was born. He therefore made his
appeal to the higher nature of man, and wisely left the rest
jo Jleaven.

As one having held office under the Emperor King-wang,
the Old Philosopher must have had ample opportunity of
contrasting the life at the Palace with that of the people

120 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

without, and his conclusion was that "administration is a
difficult thing." For while the king may himself be intent on
simple and virtuous living, the country may be full of rogues
and bandits, the people may have no proper food for their
minds, the natural industries may be neglected, and provender
may be scarce in the land. Therefore he looks upon all dis-
tinctions arising from difference of estate to be a source of
complexity and evil, and he calls it stylish theft. " That it is
not Tao is certain." For the distinction of Tao is its simplicity,
and the greatness of Tao is its unity.

LIV

THE ROOT AND ITS BRANCHES

He who plants rightly never uproots.

He who lays hold rightly never re-
linquishes.

His posterity wiU honour him continually.

Whoever develops the Tao in himself wiU
be rooted in virtue.
Whoever develops the Tao in his family

will cause his virtue to spread.

Whoever develops the Tao in his village
will increase prosperity.

Whoever develops the Tao in the kingdom
will make good fortune prevalent.

THE ROOT AND ITS BRANCHES 121

Whoever develops Tao in the world will
make virtue universal.

I observe myself, and so I come to know
others.

I observe my family, and aU others grow
famihar.

I study this world, and others come within
my knowledge.

How else should I come to know the laws
which govern all things, save thus, that I
observe them in myself?

The Sage likens the Tao to a plant which has its root in the
heart of every man, and thence by cultivation springs forth in
widespreading branches. The old maxim, Ab uno disce omnes,
is closely followed by Laotze. By the study of his own nature
and that of the people by whom he was immediately sur-
rounded, he obtained the key to the knowledge of human
nature generally. By studying his own country he came to
know others. Whether he came to know them with any
minuteness or particularity is not certain ; but great things
have been achieved by the use of the scientific imagination,
and still greater things by the intuitive sense. As a man
of deep thought he might have argued inferentially that as
Nature is universal, so are its forces, and these forces, acting
under similar conditions, would produce similar phenomena.
Astronomy, already a science of considerable advancement in
China at that date, would have instructed him as to the causes
of variation in climate : where there were high mountains he

122 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

would argue rapid streams, and where there was a range of
such mountains he would infer the existence of great rivers.
He could say with tolerable accuracy that such rivers would
flow eastward. He would locate the great cities near the
mouths of such rivers ; he would see migration flowing west-
ward. He would fashion his notions of dress and food and
habitation by his deductions regarding climate. He would
study the politics of his own country, and would know that
where there were many rulers there would be intrigues and
intestine wars, that the people would live in fear of their neigh-
bours, and that so much concern about one's neighbours would
lead to neglect of individual business and duties ; therefore he
would argue a condition of widespread poverty and dissatis-
faction. Where the territory was small, the people would be
more united and intent upon enlarging their borders ; where
the territory was large, he would find room for differences of
opinion. Thus from slender knowledge he might logically infer
much, seeing that he was well acquainted with human nature
and human needs.

In his own country he would have observed that the character
of the hill-tribes was wild and free and rugged, while that of
the people of the plains was more suave and placid and polished.
He would have observed that this was a reflection of their
environment, and that it affected their speech in equal measure
with their characters. Indeed, there is little that he could not
have derived from a knowledge of so much as lay under his
immediate daily observation in China, for there is but little
difference in human nature the world over, while the laws which
govern man and Nature are universally the same.

On the other hand, he may have used an intuitive or super-
normal faculty such as appears to be awakened in man in
certain phases of spiritual exaltation. If Saul of Tarsus can
see Ananias coming to his house and touching kis eyes that
he might receive his sight, before that event happened, and
if it could be given to Ananias to heal him, there is nothing
singular in the supposition that similar powers of direct per-

THE WONDERFUL HARMONY 123

ception should have been possessed by Laotze. In fact, it
would appear that this superior order of faculty is normal to
certain spiritualised conditions of life, and just what those
conditions are must be a matter of special inquiry with those
who desire to understand these mysteries of the human mind.
But in regard to the variety of such faculties and the unity of
their source, St. Paul writes very explicitly in his epistle from
Philippi to the Corinthians.

LV

THE WONDERFUL HARMONY

The man who is saturated with Virtue is

I.

hke a little child.

Scorpions will not sting him, wild beasts
wiU not'seize him, nor will birds of prey pluck
at him.

His young bones are not hard, neither are
his sinews strong, yet his grasp is firm and
sure.

He is full of viriUty, though unconscious of
his sex.

Though he should cry out all day, yet he
is never hoarse.

Herein is shown his harmony with Nature.

The knowledge of this harmony is the
eternal Tao.

124 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

The knowledge of the eternal Tao is il-
lumination.

Habits of excess grow upon a man, and the
mind, giving way to the passions, they increase
day by day.

And when the passions have reached their
climax, they also fail.

This is against the nature of Tao.

What is contrary to Tao soon comes to
an end.

Spiritualised man is frequently compared to a little child in
this work of Laotze, in the later works of the Taotze com-
mentators, and also in the New Testament Scriptures.

The statement that such are invulnerable to all hurt by
reptiles, wild beasts, and birds of prey may be spoken liter-
ally ; and if so, I am, for my own part, prepared to accept it
literally. Not that one should pass per saltum from the possible
to the probable and thence to the actual ; but that there is an
argument, both rational and scientific, for a belief in an earthly
millennium and a spiritualised humanity, when in very deed
" the lion shall lie down with the lamb, and a little child shall
lead them." If Daniel could come forth unharmed from a den
of famished lions, if Paul could shake a viper from his hand and
remain unhurt, while others looking on had cause to see him fall
dead, may we not conclude that the Supreme Virtue can effect a
like thing for others in whom the Spirit is equally present? And
Laotze is here speaking of those who are "saturated" with the
Tao. Rightly speaking, there is no age in which the miraculous
does not supersede the norm, and no age in which the miracle

THE MYSTERIOUS VIRTUE 125

is not comprehended by the purely natural. But the greatest
miracle that can ever happen — a miracle that is nevertheless
already provided for by Nature — will have place in the world
when man, not constrained by the fear of death or other mortal
terror, and not persuaded by the hope of a speedy reward,
shall turn of his own freewill to the Simple Way and re-
become a little child.

His bones shall be supple and tender indeed, for he will hold
no fixed opinions, but will be plastic of mind, teachable, and
accommodating. Yet his grasp will be firm and sure, for he
will lay hold on verities, and they will not elude his grasp. A
child can hold on to a rock, when a strong man cannot hold
on to a sandhill. That which is held is ever of more conse-
quence than the manner of holding.

In his regenerate and spiritualised condition the man will be
proof against malice, unhurt by violence, and will form no food
for the avaricious. The virtue of perfect Simplicity will dis-
arm malice as does the innocence of childhood ; it will be
guileless and inoffensive, adaptable and yielding, so that the
gentleness of its nature will avoid all strife ; and because it
does not display its wealth, and has nothing which it calls its
own jealousy and coveteousness will pass it by.

LVI

THE MYSTERIOUS VIRTUE

He who knows the Tao does not discuss it,
and those who babble about it do not know it.

To keep the lips closed, to shut the doors of
sight and sound, to smooth off the corners, to

126 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

temper the glare, and to be on a level with
the dust of the earth, this is the mysterious
virtue.

Whoever observes this will regard alike
both frankness and reserve, kindness and
injury, honour and degradation.

For this reason he wlU be held in great
esteem of all men.

We do not make the obvious a subject of discussion. A man
may argue for indefinite freewill, but once he comes into con-
flict with the will of Heaven he drops his polemics, and begins
to rub the battered organ of his self-esteem. If a man cannot
see the will of God expressed in the pre-established harmony of
things in the laws of Nature, it is certain that discussion will
not help him ; for the hand of God is so palpably in touch with
all things that one cannot but feel the vitality of it. But those
who babble about the obvious make use of too many words to
express the mediocrity of their intelligence. God gains nothing
from the advocacy of fools.

If the Divine Being is not sufficiently illustrated in this won-
drous universe, it is for all that not within man's power to
complete the evidence.

To keep one's own counsel with God, to leave others to the
enjoyment of their beliefs, to cease from the discernment of
differences, to forego all pomp and vanity and not to shine in
the daylight, to accommodate oneself to the likes and dislikes
of others, and to become so humble as to be only natural — this
is what the Sage calls the " Mysterious Virtue."

The world may go on its ceaseless round, but the wise man
abandons the competition and strikes the short road for home,

THE GENUINE GOVERNMENT 127

reaching, with no greater loss than that of worldly distinction,
a point in evolution which the world at large will only arrive at
some thirty centuries later. The man of Tao reaches home
without effort and in good breath. The people also will get
home, but only after much distress, and the Sage will be there
to meet them. It is better to walk straight and reach one's
home than to distress oneself with running, and break down,
after all, in the wilderness. " Follow the light that leads you
home," says Laotze, " and do not get lost in the darkness."

LVII

THE GENUINE GOVERNMENT

The righteous man may rule the nation.

The strategic man may rule the army.

But the man who refrains from active
measures should be the king.

How do I know how things should be ?

I know by this : —

When the actions of the people are con-
trolled by prohibited laws, the country be-
comes more and more impoverished.

When the people are aEowed the free use
of arms, the Government is in danger.

The more crafty and dexterous the people

128 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

become, the more do artificial things come
into use.

And when these cunning arts are pubhcly
esteemed, then do rogues prosper.

Therefore the wise man says : —
I will design nothing ; and the people will
shape themselves.

I will keep quiet ; and the people wiU find
their rest.

I will not assert myself; and the people
will come forth.

I wiU discountenance ambition ; and the
people wiU revert to their natural simpUcity.

It has already been observed that Laotze had it in his power,
if not in his thought, to become a great reformer, but he was
too wise to take it in hand. " I perceive," he says, " that when
a man with a taste for reforming the world takes it in hand,
there will be no end to it."

We have in this chapter some of the reasons which appear
to have influenced Laotze to refrain from active measures.

Some may consider the policy of our author to have been a
species of quietism, a policy of inaction and apathy. It was
none of these. That he was himself an industrious, truth-
seeking, and humane person is well-established. He desired
the advancement and welfare of the people, the solidarity of
the empire, and the integrity of its laws. But he was no
temporiser nor sycophant. He recognised that there were

THE GENUINE GOVERNMENT 129

two methods of reform at all times possible — the methods of
patching up and that of reverting to Nature. Elsewhere he
calls these methods " lopping the branches " and " feeding the
root." And he was in favour of reverting to Nature an(d
"feeding the root." The whitewashing of sepulchres appears
to have been an ancient practice, and the patching up of
obsolete institutions is still the favourite work of some forms
of government. The enactment of temporary laws, of palliative
measures which do not go to the root of things, is almost the
sole business of modern governments. Prohibitory laws are
so numerous and complex that a body is hedged in by the
" must " and " must not " of local and statute law and of modern
conventionality, and what he may or might do of his own
natural goodness is almost sure to offend. Some day, when
the people are caught in this net of their own weaving, its
complexity will prove to be a matter of dismay. And in those
days benevolence will be a proprietory article in the hands of
the capitalists.

Whitewashing a house may give it a good outside appearance,
but it will not secure domestic peace to those that dwell in it.
If the world is to be reformed we must get at the root of it.
We must reform the mind of the world, and the body of it will
be regulated at the same time. To put a pig in a palace will
not make of it a gentleman. Left to itself, it will choose the
sty. By making citizenship compulsory we have cleared the
seas of pirates and the hills of bandits, but you will find them
in all our great cities. As to the expediency of herding the
wolves with the sheep, those who have the matter of govern-
ment in hand should be able to decide. If our author would
have made the great pirate an admiral and the great bandit a
general, it would not have been on considerations of merit, but
of utility ; for we know that while he repudiated merit, he had
great regard for the natural uses of things and persons. And
perhaps, after all, this would be better than making outlaws
and enemies of all pirates and bandits 1

K

130 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

LVIII

LETTING OTHERS REFORM
THEMSELVES

A FREE and generous government gives the
people a chance to develop.

When the government is rigid and exacting
the people are cramped and miserable.

Misery is but the shadow of happiness.

Happiness is but the cloak of misery.

When will there be an end to them ?

If we dispense with rectitude, distortion will
assert itself ; and what was good in its way will
give place to what is evil.

Verily the people have been under a cloud
for a long time.

Therefore the wise man is fuU of rectitude,
but he does not chip and carve at others.

He is just, but does not admonish others.

He is upright, but he does not straighten
others.

He is enlightened, but he does not offend
with his brightness.

LETTING OTHERS REFORM THEMSELVES 131

If every man could exercise individual self-government, the
work of administration would be reduced to a cipher. The
Old Philosopher believed in giving the people a chance to
develop themselves. Modern local government may be a
step in the right direction ; but while people of one town are
allowed to govern others — their neighbours — what may pass as
neighbourly solicitude is apt to be mistaken for masterly inter-
ference.

By throwing the responsibility of government on the people,
the king is rendered free from censure. By putting the re-
sponsibility on the individual, the people are not disgraced.
But when the individual can take it upon himself to govern
himself, both the king and the people have rest.

By distributing honours the fire of ambition is quenched and
the throne is rendered secure. By distributing wealth the
canker of discontent is rooted out, ostentation is stifled, and
the hungry are satisfied. By distributing work the yoke is
everywhere lightened, and by not having to care so much for
the bodily needs the people have more time to cultivate their
souls.

This is the policy of government which Laotze would have
us follow. It is a policy of freedom and liberality, of true
conservatism. Misery and happiness are relative states, and
the dominance of one over the other in the individual or
nation constitutes the temporal condition of life. Neither one
nor the other state is permanent. A man cannot be truly
miserable till he has known happiness. It is the cloaking of
happiness by misery that makes him wretched. Of the happy
we observe that they are not miserable 5 of the miserable, that
they are not happy. But even so we speak of a condittion
that is both relative and temporary. Laotze would make an
end of all that is temporary and comparative in human life.
For happiness and misery he would substitute contentment j
for government and authority he would advocate self-control
and non-interference. In the elder generations of every age
he will find many supporters, and in the world's maturity the

132 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

idea will become universal. The world's first estate will also
be its last, for as Laotze says, " Tao is hidden, and it has no
name ; but it is good at beginning and finishing."

LIX

PRESERVING THE TAO

In ruling men and in serving Heaven there
I is nothing like moderation.

By means of it one attains to his first estate.

When this is attained a man is possessed of
an indefinite store of virtue.

With such a store of virtue he will over-
come everything.

And of this mastery there will be no limit.

Thus, without hindrance, he may possess
the Kingdom.

Such a man has the mother-constitution,
and will endure indefinitely.

He is Uke the plant whose roots are deep
and whose stem is firm.

Thus may a man live long and see many
days.

PRESERVING THE TAO 133

Moderation is the keynote of the doctrine of Simplicity.
There is nothing of the conventual, the ascetic, or the abnormal
either in the Old Philosopher or his teachings. Fasting and
praying are not the means whereby to move the Gates of
Heaven. " My yoke is easy and My burden is light," said the
Christ. "It is so easy that even a child can use it," says
Laotze.

Taking the Gates of Heaven by storm, is one method ;
wearing them away with importunity is another. Both methods
have their advocates. But another and a simpler way is re-
vealed by Laotze.

" Having emptied yourself of everything, remain where you
are," says the philosopher. "Whosoever he be of you that
forsaketh not all that he hath, cannot be My disciple," is the
Master's ultimatum. Heaven is to be served with moderation I
What is this ? Some new doctrine, surely I No, it is not
that Heaven is to be served moderately, but by means of
moderation ; as men are to be ruled, also by this means.
We cannot be too strenuous in the service of Heaven, but
it is not to be done by any kind of excessive effort. To
moderate the thought and speech, to moderate feeling and
action, and so to live the life of moderation, is to conserve
one's powers and augment one's strength. Moderation, how-
ever, does not apply solely to the quantities, but equally to
the qualities of things in use. The man who regulates the
quantity of nutriment he takes, without regard to its quality,
will eventually be in as sad a condition as the immoderate eater
and drinker ; and the same may be said of mental and spiritual
sustenance. Deep-rooted in Nature, his branches streaming
to the sky, the man of moderate habits outlasts his age ; for,
having exercised moderation, his forces are conserved, and his
store of natural virtue is unlimited.

134 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

LX

FILLING THE THRONE

The state should be governed as we cook
small fish, without much business.

Bringing the Tao to the governing of the
Kingdom will give rest to the shades of the
dead.

Not that the Spirits wiU be inactive, but
that they will cease to trouble the people.

But what is of more importance, the wise
ruler of the people will not hurt them.

And in so far as they do not interfere with
one another, their influences conspire to the
general good I

Simplicity, purity, and perfection are the qualities of the
Taoic nature. The government of the people should be thus
simple and pure and perfect. Elsewhere Laotze has said that
we make too much business of the matter of government, and
that our machinery is far too cumbersome and complex for the
work that it is required to do. Virtue consists in being true
to oneself, and charity in letting alone, he says ; and he affirms
that interference with the liberty of the subject is the chief
cause of the general lack of self-control.

" To effect government by means of Tao is to give rest to
the shades of the dead." We here come into touch with a

FILLING THE THRONE 135

phase of thought that is intimately connected with the esta-
blished faith in the spiritual ministrations of deceased ancestors ;
which faith found frequent expression in a variety of State
functions in the days of Laotze, and had thus been recognised
by successive rulers for at least twenty-five centuries previously.
It was an essential part of the Shinto religion, a brief sketch
of which will be found in my concluding notes to this work.

Whether this ancestor-worship was based on any positive
knowledge of the operation in human affairs of departed souls,
is not a matter of certainty. It is specifically mentioned in the
Shu-king, where there is abundant evidence of the fact that
the highest respect was paid to the spirits of the deceased, and
numerous sacrifices appointed in the ancestral temples of
successive dynasties. The patriarchal ruler, Yaou, who sur-
vived the deluge in China, B.C. 2348, enjoined these ceremonies
upon the people, and himself observed them. In India at the
present day the festival oi Shravanan (the "shriving" ceremony),
which originally took place at the winter solstice on the solar
entry into the sign of the Goat, is largely connected with
Pitripuja, or "ancestor-worship," and on this occasion, as in
the corresponding Chinese ceremony, the eldest son performs
the invocation of the spirits of the progenitors.

When man has discovered in himself the " X " rays of
psychological science these questions will,. be capable of
definite solution ; bjt at present one can only say that the
experience of one is not sufficient for all, and the evidence
of one will not serve for others. Therefore those who have
such evidence should wisely keep their own counsel, or confer
only with those in knowledge of like experiences. If on his
return from the Yukon Valley a solitary traveller should
declare that the gold there is practically unlimited, thousands
will give up everything they hold and will rush for it. If
another, coming from a distant country, declares that its
produce is abundant and the soil capable of immense com-
mercial development, the immigration of some few enterpris-
ing and industrious people will follow in due course. But if

136 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

one should come from beyond the veil, bringing with him
such evidences as can be conveniently transported thence, the
fault is in no way his that they do not appeal to the senses,
though that is probably the only reason there is not an im-
mediate and extensive exodus. Proofs must always be related
to the nature of the subject in question. The explorer from
the Yukon Valley bears with him the marks of his experience.
The voyager from the distant El Dorado speaks in the un-
familiar language of that cUme, he shows connectedness in
his narrative, and although he has not brought El Dorado in
his vest-pocket, few would deny his evidence. So also the
man from a world beyond. " The tree is known by its fruit I "

LXI

THE VIRTUE OF HUMILITY

The kingdom, like a river, becomes great by
being lowly ; it is thereby the centre to which
all the world tends.

It is similar in the case of woman :

She conquers man by continual quietness.

And quietness is the same as submission.

Therefore a great state, by condescension
to those beneath it, may gain the government
of them.

Likewise a small state, by submission to
one that is greater, may secure its alliance.

THE VIRTUE OF HUMILITY 137

Thus the one gains adherence, and the
other obtains favours.

Although the great state desires to annex
and to nourish others, yet the small state
desires to be allied to and serve the greater.

Thus both will be satisfied, if only the
greater will condescend.

The teachings of the Taoists have been characterised as im-
practicable and effete. It has been affirmed that the followers
of Laotze would, if they could, "convert the fertile soil into
a barren wilderness, and the brightness of day into nocturnal
obscurity." It is difficult to trace any signs of confusion or
obscurity in the policy here advocated by Laotze. It is a very
clear statement of the relations which should exist between
a protectorate power and its allied states. But what do we
see in China to-day? A fertile soil converted into a field
of carnage — by interference ; an ancient depository of most
valuable records converted into temporary barracks — through
ambition ; the temples ransacked and given over to money-
changers — through greed of gain ; and the " light of day turned
into nocturnal obscurity" — through the blindness of bigotry.
So jih yiu shih chi ki in very deed ! And the effects of that
black eclipse will darken the nations for centuries to come.
China did not seek missionary interference, and those who go
forth with the gospel in one hand should rightly take their lives
in the other. The evangel of Christ (see Mark vi., Luke ix.,
and John xv.) does not warrant an appeal to State protection.
Rather does it advocate the doctrine of non-interference, and
that the unsuccessful missionary should " shake off the dust of

138 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

his feet as a testimony against them" when leaving a people
to the effects of their own faith.

Condescension and forbearance, submissiveness and quiet-
ness, are held to be of great influence in every department of
life, not excepting the home. From the time that women,
under the influence of Western civilisation, began to assert their
" rights," they abandoned the many privileges of their sex and
forfeited their claim to the special protection of their allergens.
As a natural consequence women have become more obtrusive
and men less chivalrous. Thousands of women crowd our
city streets to-day, usurping the place of the legitimate bread-
winner and throwing hundreds of men out of employment.
Yet they are surprised when they are not accorded the accus-
tomed privileges of their sex, and yet further amazed when
men, finding them undomesticated and wanting in tenderness,
simplicity and reserve, do not approach them with serious
attentions. This influx of feminine virility has disorganised the
labour market, impoverished the home, and will in time, if the
teachings of Laotze be true, corrupt and demoralise the state.
Virtue is not attained by attempting the work of others. It is
due to keeping to one's proper place and by devotion to one's
proper work in the world.

LXII

PRACTICAL TAO

Tao is the secret guardian of all things.

It enriches the good man and forefends the
evildoer.

Its counsel is always in season ; its benevo-
lence is always in demand.

PRACTICAL TAO 139

Even those who are not good it does not
forsake.

Therefore, when the Emperor takes his
throne and appoints his nobles, he who comes
before him bearing the insignia of a prince
and escorted by a moimted retinue is not to
be compared with one who humbly presents
this Tao.

For why did the ancients hold it in such
esteem ?

Was it not because it could be had without
much seeking, and because by means of it
man might escape from sin ?

For this it was esteemed the greatest thing
in the world 1

It has been already said that Tao is no respecter of persons
(see Chapter V.). In this sense the word Tao is used to
designate the Supreme Being rather than, as in some other
passages, the doctrine concerning the Deity. Tao regards
all persons as vessels fit for service. In this chapter it is shown
that the Tao cherishes all things and persons without distinc-
tion. As the source of all intelligence its counsel is always in
season ; as the source of all good its benevolence is always
in demand ; and because it is inexhaustible it is never known
to fail. The good man is thereby enabled to better his con-
dition, and the evil man is prevented from a worse state.
Therefore everyone, after his own nature, relies upon the

MO LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

supreme source, and consciously or unconsciously puts his
faith therein.

" Thou art the cause supreme of life,
The hidden good in every ill,
Which even they who live in strife
Do serve with an unconscious will.
Thou art the salve of hearts that bleed ;
The grave of every ruined creed ! "

Trans, from La Nature.

Therefore one may rely on the favour of a king, and be dis-
appointed ; on the power of wealth, and it will fail ; on the
strength of his arm, and it will forsake him ; on the fidelity
of friends, and it will prove abortive. But if he relies on the
Infinite Love he will never be forsaken. Hence, the man who
humbly presents this doctrine of Original Simplicity to an
Emperor, before he has had time to complicate the affairs of
State, is more worthy to be received than a prince and his
cavalcade.

Incidentally Laotze mentions that this doctrine of the Tao
was the faith of the Ancients. There are good grounds for
believing that Laotze had access to the ancient records, and
probably had given much study to the " Grand Plan," in which
is detailed the Eightfold Path of right government, contained
m the famous Book of the Lo River. This book embodied all
the essentials of the doctrine of the Tao, and was an heirloom
of the days of Fuh-hi. In the days of the great floods, B.C.
2348, it was lost, and history records that it was afterwards
found by Ta Yu in the bed of the Lo River during the course
of his great survey.' Fuh-hi, Hwang -ti, Chuen-hia, Yaou,
Shun, and Ta-yu were those of the patriarchal dynasty who
ruled China between the thirtieth and twenty-third centuries
B.C., and were renowned and revered for their great wisdom
and sanctity and the simplicity and purity of their lives. No
doubt it is to records of these sages that Laotze would refer,

' See the author's translation of the Shu-kins *n<l Commentary,

FORETHOUGHT 141

LXIII

FORETHOUGHT

Acting without design, occupying oneself
without making a business of it, finding the
great in what is small, and the many in the
few, repaying injury with kindness, effecting
difficult things while they are easy, and
managing great things in their beginnings,
is the method of Tao.

All difficult things have their origin in that
which is easy, and great things in that which
is small.

Therefore the wise man can accomplish
great things without even attempting them.

He who hghtly assents wiU seldom keep his
word.

He who accounts all things easy will have
many difficulties.

Therefore the Sage takes great account of
small things, and so never has any difficulty.

142 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

By the expression, "acting without design," we do not
understand that the action is unintentional, apathetic, and
without purpose, but that it is without selfish motive and with-
out reference to the personal advantage of action. Action,
without motive of some sort, would be simply automatism,
and devoid of rationality, direction, and determinism. As the
Italians say : Come si pu6 operare chi non sa che cosa si
voglia? (How shall one act who does not know what he
wants?) A motive of some sort must underlie and ensoul
every action, for what is automatic and habitual was at one
time voluntary and purposive. The mere choice of good and
evil in motive is a purposive action, having regard to the
welfare of others or of oneself. Selfishness is the worse evil,
in that it has no thought of others, and therefore makes no
choice of action. He who chooses that which is good is not
concerned with expediency, and yet always accomplishes that
which is most expedient.

To see all things as comprehended in the One is what is
called " finding the many in the few," for there cannot be mqre
than the All or less than the One. To see God in all things
is to "find the Great in what is small." The study of the
universe will reveal to us what an inconsiderable creature is
man. The study of Man will show us what a God he may
become ! But to study the One in all is better than to study
the many in the One, for the knowledge of differences will only
lead to mental dissipation, while the knowledge of identities
will bring the mind to rest.

Repaying good with good and evil with evil is mere com-
merce ; but to repay evil with good is princely, if not divine.
To give in equal measure shows competence, to give in
greater measure shows affluence. The world esteems wealth
and despises poverty.

"To effect difficult things while they are easy," one must
take them in their beginnings. The government of the kingdom
is a difficult matter, but if the king governs the Chief Subject,
the kingdom may be said to govern itself. The Sage therefore

GUARDING THE SMALL 143

accomplishes everything without attempting it, for he has no
hope that is not already included in the promise of life,
no ambition which is not in harmony with the revealed Will
of Heaven, and therefore he does nothing without seeing the
end from the beginning. That is why he claims no merit, but
ascribes all results to their Supreme Source. "Great battles
are won before they are actually fought," says Sir John Lubbock.
" To control our passions we must govern our habits and keep
watch over ourselves in the small details of everyday life." This
is what is meant by "managing great things in their beginnings."

LXIV

GUARDING THE SMALL

What is still is easily held.
What is expected is easily provided for.
What is brittle is easily broken.
What is small is soon dispersed.
Transact your business before it takes shape.
Regulate things before confusion begras.

The tree which fills the arms grew from a
tender shoot.

The castle of nine storeys was raised on a
heap of earth.

The journey of a thousand miles begins
with one step.

144 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

Whoever designs only destroys.

Whoever grasps, loses.

The Sage does not thus act, therefore he
does no harm.

He does not grasp, and therefore he never
loses.

But the common people, in their under-
takings, fail on the eve of success.

If they were as prudent at the end as they
are at the beginning, there would be no such
failures.

Therefore the Sage is only ambitious of
what others despise, and sets no value on
things difficult to obtain.

He acquires no common learning, but re-
turns to that which the people have passed by.

Thus he aims at simple development in aU
things, and acts without design.

Our author here continues the subject of the preceding
chapter. It has already been stated that the book of Tao-teh,
as delivered by Laotze, was a continuous writing without
divisions and capitation. These have been effected by the
commentators, probably in the second century B.C. That
Laotze wrote spontaneously, and "as the spirit moved him,"

GUARDING THE SMALL 145

without design or arrangement, is obvious throughout the
book, and we needs must follow him. Modern literary critics
will hardly appreciate this form, but they cannot, on that
account, shut their eyes to its substance.

Having shown the importance of carefulness in beginning
things, the Sage now shows that equal care is needed in con-
tinuing and finishing. As a picker-up of unconsidered trifles,
our author reverts, as wise men will, to that which others have
passed by. He goes back to the ancient doctrine which had
been obliterated, and was, at his day, further threatened with
the invasion of a new philosophy. He goes back to Original
Simplicity, to natural development, while the world goes
forward to new complexities, and from one confusion of thought
to another.

On the stone which the builders rejected our philosopher
takes his seat, and at this day that stone is in request. Laotze
would have us rightly understand the Art of Living. He aims
at the natural development and the orderly unfoldment of
inherent powers. Man, as we know him, is a complex creature,
a thing of admiration or of contempt, a vessel made to holy
uses, yet largely filled with corruption. That dog yonder is
nearer to Nature than he to God. It wanders back and forth,
but manages to keep near to the cause of its welfare ; while its
master, who is neither wholly natural nor wholly godly, is hke
a stray sheep in the desert, a fish out of water, or an owl in the
sunlight. Yet is he rightly persuaded that the animal has
much regard for him. It answers to his eall, and prefers his
hand to that of another.

Thus we see that Nature is wise without discernment ; and
further, that as between Nature and God, that which leans
towards God has the advantage, for man, having left Nature,
inclines towards God. And in this is he rendered superior to
the animal who is wholly natural. Every child has two parents,
and in the choice between them it is well to keep close to one
or the other, and so not to get lost.

146 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

LXV

SIMPLE VIRTUE

The ancients who practised the Tao did not
make use of it to render the people brilliant,
but to make them simple and natural.

The difficulty in governing the people is
through overmuch pohcy.

He who tries to govern the kingdom by
policy is only a scourge to it ; while he who
governs without it is a blessing.

To know these twa things is the perfect
knowledge of government, and to keep them
continually in view is called the virtue of
simplicity.

Deep and wide is this simple virtue ; and
though opposed to other methods it can bring
about a perfect order.

The political leader-writer in search of a subject would do
well to consider this chapter, and whether he be " brilliant," or
only " simple and natural," I am persuaded that he would make
good use of it. For myself, being neither one nor the other,

SIMPLE VIRTUE 147

I scarce know how to look at it. But it is observable that a
brief policy makes a good budget, and an extensive policy is
productive of a bad one. When a man minds his own business
and concentrates his energies, he is on the way to securing his
fortunes ; while those who conduct their affairs in other men's
houses are never very successful in their own. The bankrupt
tradesman is forced to retire to the country for the sake of his
health. A defeated Government also goes to the country.
And because they do this when things are on the wane, they
are said to follow " the dark path." A business man is always
ruined by his calculations, and a Government by its policy ;
while the man who makes no calculations and pursues no
policy is never defeated. It is also observed that when the
Government is "in the country" affairs appear to govern
themselves. We eat and sleep and pay our rates and taxes,
as if the Government were in full swing and every office filled.
For at such times the people take the government upon them-
selves, and there is no question of their good intentions.

But the godfathers appear with a new bantling, and some are
for calling it Peter and others Paul. So the matter is put to
the vote, and the people go about in swelling pride, every
one of them an emperor with a hundred chariots to choose
from if only he will honour them with the dust of his feet I
It is a great day for the people when it comes to giving a name
to a thing ! At last, however, it is decided that the choice of
the nation is in favour of Peter, and the godfathers take leave
of the people in the country and go up to the Temple of
Stephen, where, amid great rejoicing and much ceremony,
the new-born child is christened. When, after a lapse of time
it is found that the child is neither a Peter nor a Paul, but an
Agnes or a Jezebel, the godfathers go down to the country
again to confer with the people, and affairs are left to govern
themselves once more.

148 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

LXVI

GOING BEHIND

That by which the great rivers and seas
receive the tribute of all the streams, is the
fact of their being lowly ; that is the cause
of their superiority.

Thus the Sage, wishing to govern the
people, speaks of himself as beneath them ;
and wishing to lead them, places himself
behind them.

So, while he is yet above them, they do
not feel his weight ; and being before them,
he yet causes no obstruction.

Therefore aU men exalt him with acclama-
tions, and none is offended.

And because he does not strive, no man
is his enemy.

If the authenticity of this book were not beyond question,
one would be justified in supposing it to be of Christian
tradition, so literally does it convey, in many passages, the
true teaching of the Gospels. On the virtue of Humility
Laotze is insistent ; and by " virtue " he conveys nothing qi
merit, but merely actual utility. The virtuous is the useful.

GOING BEHIND 149

" He who would be greatest among you, the same must be
servant of all," are words familiar to every Christian, ^^he
virtue of Humility is its usefulness ; whereby the people are
ruled without oppression, and led forth without obstruction.
The virtue of lowliness is everywhere evident, and here receives
illustration. As things are esteemed on account of their rarity,
so men of reclusive nature have always the greatest welcome.
What is ponderable and of much gravity seeks the lowest
place, where, in obscurity, it sustains all else above it and
continues in safety. The mountains are lofty, but they are
barren where they are highest. The valleys are lowly, but
fruitful, and well watered where they are lowest. The people
throng to the valleys and leave the mountain -tops alone.
Where the paths are difficult and food is scarce even a great
man may find no following ; and the people prefer the fertile
valleys where the paths are smooth, labour light, and food
plentiful. On the pinnacle of the mountain there is standing
room for one man. In the widespreading valleys and plains
there is room for all to lie down and rest. Therefore the wise
and virtuous, when seeking obscurity, betake themselves to the
valleys, where they can lose themselves among the people.

To influence without compelling, to persuade without arguing,
and to regulate without retarding the people, is good govern-
ment. It is also the way of Heaven.

ISO LAOTZEr THE SIMPLE WAY

LXVII

THREE PRECIOUS THINGS

All the world avows that while my Taoism
is great, it is yet incompetent !

It is its greatness which makes it appear
incompetent.

If it were like others, it would long ago
have been recognised as incompetent.

But I hold fast to three precious things,
which also I cherish.

The first is gentleness.

The second is economy.

The third is humUity.

With such gentleness I can be daring.

With such economy I can be generous.

With such humility I can be great in service,
as a vessel of honour.

But in these days men forsake gentleness
and become only obtrusive.

THREE PRECIOUS THINGS 151

They abandon economy and become only
excessive.

They rehnquish humility and strive for
precedence, and thus for death.

Gentleness is ever victorious in attack and
secure in defence.

Therefore when Heaven would preserve a
man it enfolds him with gentleness.

The doctrine of Tao, which appears to be so incompetent,
Laotze shows to be, after all, the most practical. For when
men have only succeeded by their obtrusiveness in creating
strife and all manner of complications, gentleness is found to
be the only salve and the only means of extricating those who
are involved. When excess has emptied the coffers and ex-
hausted the larder, it is found that economy has enough of good
fare to go round. When ambition has reached its height, those
who are beneath can withdraw their support ! But humihty
sustains all positions with equal ease, and itself is safe from
falling. The highest place is the most difficult to maintain,
and the lowest is most difficult to undermine. Heaven sustains
and directs things from beneath, as a plant is nourished from
its root, while virtually ruling them from above.

152 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

LXVIII

IMITATING HEAVEN

The good commander is not imperious.

The good fighter is not wrathful.

The greatest conqueror does not wage war.

The best master governs by condescension.

This is the virtue of not contending.

This is the virtue of persuasion.

This is the imitation of Heaven, and this
was the highest aim of the ancients.

Heaven rules the universe without apparent effort. All
things appear to progress of their own accord, but Heaven
holds them in check by keeping a hold upon their root-natures,
and so governs them from and through themselves. To fight
without killing, to command without impelling, and to conquer
without contending, is only possible to those who love their
fellow-creatures ; and such was the ambition of the virtuous
ancients. Gentleness, forbearance, and humility are far away
from the principles that govern modern conditions of life.

"Gentleness, virtue, wisdom, and endurance :
These are the seals of that most firm assurance
Which bar the pit over Destruction's strength !"

IMITATING HEAVEN 153

sang the prophetic poet who companioned the Spirit of SoU-
tude. But look ! it is but three hundred years since the
Pilgrim Fathers went out, gospel in hand, to colonise America
— men of simple life, of stout hearts, and of great faith. But
he who built the first log cabin and traded with the Indian
chief on the borders of the settlement did not dream a modern
Chicago, nor conceive a possible city of New York.

It is difficult to determine the particular period of those men
to whom Laotze refers to as " the Ancients," but it is safe to
assume that he is speaking of the Chinese patriarchs, prior to
the establishment of the Hia dynasty, concerning whom there
is some fragmentary record. The earliest rulers of China were
wont to speak of their " divine ancestors," and it is universally
received that there was a time in the history of man when he
was nearer in life to all that is virtuous and holy than now.
The expression in the Hebrew Genesis, "The sons of God
walked with the daughters of men," would seem to infer that
the evolution of the natural man had attained a point where it
was met by the involution of the spiritual ; and St. Paul says,
" First was that which was natural, and afterwards that which
was spiritual." And prior to this quickening of the natural by
the incoming of the spiritual, there were those of " the order
of Melchizedek," who, like Seth and Enoch, "walked with
God." The divine origin of mankind is of universal belief,
and every great religious system of thought is based on this
principle. But during the ascendency of the Darwinian system
it was a common but fallacious conceit of some minds to
advocate the belief that man was only " a superior monkey."
Latterly, however, there has been a revolt in favour of tha
original concept of the divine ancestry, with this curious
addendum, that the monkey is only " a degenerate man " I
As far as we are able to trace, it would appear that at first
the earth was peopled by a race of giants, who represented
the apotheosis of physical evolution in the animal man. "There
were giants in the earth in those days." But later, and at the
point where it is presumed that physical evolution was met by

IS4 LAOTZE: THE SIMPL-E WAY

spiritual involution, a kind of introversion took place. Since
then the whole trend of human development has been towards
the specialisation of faculty, the evolution of the unit from the
mass, and the esrtablishing of the ascendency of mind over
matter. I conceive that there is a great and deep mystery
attaching to this tradition of the "divine ancestor" of the
human race, and the Hebraic concept of "Adam," equally
with that of the Chinese Fuh-hi and the Neu-wo, veils a great
truth which remains for us to discover.

LXIX

THE USE OF SUPREME VIRTUE

A GKEAT warrior has said, "I dare not be
the host, I would rather be the guest ; I dare
not advance an inch, I would rather retire a
foot."

Now this I caU fihng in without marshalling
the ranks ; baring the arms without preparing
to fight ; grasping the sword without un-
sheathing it ; and advancing upon the enemy
without coming into conflict.

There is nothing so unfortunate as entering
lightly into battle.

For by so doing we are in danger of losing
that which is most precious.

THE USE OF SUPREME VIRTUE 155

Thus it happens that when opposing forces
meet in battle, he who feels the pity of it
assuredly conquers.

It is not certainly known to whom Laotze refers as the
" great warrior." Among the historical warrior kings of China
there was Tai T'ang and Wu-wang, both of whom showed
great forbearance towards the enemies of their country, and
were reluctant to enter into battle, but the exact quotation is
not to be found in the historical classic.

The expression, " I dare not be the host," means that he
shrinks from giving a challenge. The terms "host" and
" guest " were given to the combatants in a duel or wrestling
match. The host was he who gave the challenge, and the
guest he who accepted it. The host would say, " Come on !
I will give you good fare ! " To which invitation the guest
would reply, " I have a good appetite ! " They would then
fall to. "Beware of entrance to a quarrel," was the sage
advice of Polonius to Laertes in the play of Hamlet. " Agree
with thine adversary whilst thou art in the way with him," said
the Christ.

By "that which is most precious" Laotze probably means
life itself. Everything else appears subsidiary when once the
battle has beagj, though previously it may have seemed that
honour, or-^ossession, a throne to be saved or gained, was of
greater value, since the combatants were willing to risk their
lives for it. Moreover, it is always possible that a war may
outlast the cause of it ; and it is doubtful whether, from the
first blow to the last, the bone of contention is ever held in
view by any but non-combatants.

" He who feels the pity of it assuredly conquers," says Laotze.
It is scarcely probable that he can mean that the feeling of
pity is the cause of conquest, and the paraphrase, " He who
conquers feels the pity of it," will perhaps convey the right

156 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

idea, the survivor in a combat being he who feels the pity
of it all. But it is possible that Laotze had a subtle purpose
in thus stating the case. It appears likely that he may have
wished to say : He who feels the pity of entering into a
combat, and shedding the blood of a fellow-creature, assuredly
conquers by avoiding it. And this rendering is not altogether
precluded by the phrase, "When opposing powers meet in
battle," since what is designed by the meeting need not come
to pass. This is in line with the former saying of Laotze,
" The greatest conqueror does not wage war." He conquers
himself, his inordinate ambitions, and his passions, thus gain-
ing the greatest of all victories without hurt to others. It is
possible to conquer the world with love.

LXX

THE DIFFICULT RECOGNITION

Easy are my words to know, and also to
practise.

Yet none is able to understand nor yet to
practise them.

For there is a remote origin for my words,
and a supreme law for my actions.

Not knowing these, men cannot know me.

Those who know me are few, and by them
I am esteemed.

For the wise man is outwardly poor, but he
carries his jewel in his bosom.

THE DIFFICULT RECOGNITION 157

In the twentieth chapter the philosopher compares himself
to a waif, a little child without a home, one estranged from the
people. He now indicates wherein that estrangement lies.

"There is a remote origin for my words" would seem to
mean that they are of very ancient tradition, and that his
teaching was that of the wise men of old, " who spake as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit," and in such case we may
claim for the teachings of Laotze something of the sanctity
of inspired utterance. But he is speaking to a later generation,
which does not understand nor is able to practise his teachings.

The same is said of the generation to which the Holy
Nazarene appealed : " Eyes have they, and see not : ears have
they, and hear not ; neither understand they in their hearts."
And again : " Seeing they will not perceive, and hearing they
will not understand." The prophet Isaiah likewise complained
in the voice of the Spirit of Truth : " I was found of them that
sought me not, and made manifest to them that enquired not
concerning me." And of Israel he said : "All day long have
I stretched out my hands to a perverse and hostile generation !"

But the Old Philosopher takes comfort in the fact that by the
few who understand him he is greatly esteemed.

" There is a supreme law for my actions," he says ; and from
what we have already seen of his teachings, it is certain that
he refers to the law of love.

It is perhaps better to regard the whole chapter as written
in an impersonal sense and as referring rather to the teachings
themselves than he who deUvers them. Then it is by no means
difficult to understand that the law of Love, which is the law
of self-sacrifice, is as easy to know as it is hard to practise.
And because the world is inherently selfish, the doctrine of the
Tao cannot largely appeal to it ; but to the few who are capable
of holding and using it there is nothing more estimable.

Further, by the expression " outwardly poor " we see that the
doctrine of the Tao offers no attractions to the pharasaical lover
of the pomp and circumstance of ritualism, for it is a doctrine
which, when received, is hidden away in the heart. Thus while

158 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

it is at all points in harmony with the gospel teaching, the
promulgation of this doctrine would be as strongly resisted at
this day by the upholders of Ecclesiasticism as was the teach-
ing of the Buddha by the Brahmins, or that of the Christ by
the Pharisees and Scribes,

LXXI

THE DISEASE OF KNOWING

To know one's ignorance is the best part of
knowledge.

To be ignorant of such knowledge is a
disease.

If one only regards it as a disease, he will
soon be cured of it.

The wise man is exempt from this disease.

He knows it for what it is, and so is free
from it.

Knowledge as a mere accretion of detail is never referred to
by our author with any affection or esteem. He here shows
that the knowledge of our ignorance is the essential part of
true knowledge. " Dispense with your learning and save your-
self anxiety," he says in Chapter XX. The discernment of
differences will not help us to distinguish between what is
essentially good or evil, for there is only one source of good,
and what is not of that " cometh of evil." To know our own

THE DISEASE OF KNOWING 159

ignorance is the end of all knowledge, to know the source of
knowledge is the beginning of wisdom ; but to be ignorant of
these things is called "chasing the shadows." The uncon-
sciousness of our ignorance renders all our learning so much
folly. We give a name to a thing, or a meaning to a word,
and because we can recognise them again, or recall a host of
these things to our memories, we are esteemed learned.

But if we could know the thing in itself, or the subject of
the word, we might rightly be esteemed wise. If we call the
oak a sycamore, we may be corrected, and if we distinguish
between them, we have corrected ourselves ; but knowing the
virtue of either the oak or the sycamore, we may dispense
with the names of them, and call them what we will. So that
if one would be learned, let him study the names of things,
and be apt at affixing labels and the making of catalogues.
But if he would be wise, let him study the natures of things
and their uses, and chief among things, himself ; for all things
are related to him through his own nature, and not otherwise.
And thus growing wise, man may come to see God in all
things, and all things in God. So that by whatever name we
call the Supreme Being is a matter of small consequence, so
that the Virtue of that Being is found in ourselves.

Regarding this discernment of the essential virtue of things,
Tennyson has this exquisite little verse —

" Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you from the crannies ;
And I hold you in my hand,
Little flower ; but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should understand what God and Man is 1"

i6o LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

LXXII

LOVING ONESELF

When men do not have a right fear of
present dangers, they run into extremes of
peril.

Let them beware of enlarging the house,
being weary of present conditions.

If they do not despise it, no such weariness
will arise.

This is why the Sage, while possessed of
self-knowledge, does not parade himself

He loves, but does not value himself highly.

Thus he puts away pride, and is content.

Laotze indicates that there is nothing wrong in self-regard
and the care of the person. The wrong consists in ostentation
and reckless exposure. To keep out of danger one must have
a right fear of present dangers, for by a bad beginning one is
only retarded ; but by running to extremes he makes a bad
finish, which is beyond remedy. Weariness of hfe and dis-
content is a condition of the mind induced by circumstances.
It is easier to change our condition of mind than to change our
circumstances, for the one is wholly within our own control,
while the other is largely subject to the will of others. Let the

FREEDOM OF ACTION i6i

discontented man but compare his lot with that of many others,
or consider for a moment what a very little, after all, he has
actually contributed to the sum of human happiness or to the
regulation of things as they are. The free-will and liberty of
man consists, mainly, in his mental view-point and attitude
towards things as he finds them, and very little in the making
of his own environment and conditions of life. Self-knowledge
is the chief means of self-adjustment to one's surroundings, and
it is the perennial source of contentment ; for the knowledge
of self is the knowledge of all else that is related to the self,
and by self-control, which results from self-knowledge, we
may regain some of our lost liberty and contentment. Where
we find it impossible to advance an inch, we may always retire
a foot.

LXXIII

FREEDOM OF ACTION

He whose coxirage is expressed in daring will
soon meet death.

He whose courage is shown in self-restraint
will be preserved.

There are, then, two kinds of courage ; the
one is injurious and the other of advantage.

But who is to say why one of them should
incur the judgment of Heaven ?

That is why the Sage finds it difficult to act.

M

i62 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

The celestial Tao does not strive, and yet
overcomes everything.

It does not speak, yet it is skilful in repl5dng.

It does not call, yet things come to it. readily.

It is quiet in its methods, yet its plans are
thoroughly effective.

The net of Heaven has large meshes, and
yet nothing escapes it I

The courage of daring is injurious, and the courage of pru-
dence is of advantage. This is worth knowing. In common
experience it is easy enough to act, but very difficult to restrain
oneself. The Spirit of the Age, which Shelley calls Demogorgon,
is one of hideous self-inflation, ambition, rivalry, simulation,
and patchwork. If one cannot be drawn into the field of
competition, he is driven into it. All the world over, individual
responsibility and self<ontrol are being thrown over to dele-
gates, so that men may rush into the field to fight for wealth
and position. Men are jiaid to do the people's thinking for
them, and to serve up the husks of badly digested records and
statistics. Causes are neglected, and effects are regarded as
essential ; principles are of small account, while the great
thing is to be on the right side of the market. Under such
conditions a premium is set on the courage of daring, while the
courage of self-restraint is regarded as lack of enterprise.

Yet, as Laotze says : " Who can tell why one should incur
the judgment of Heaven?" But he shortly gives the answer:
" The celestial Tao does not strive, yet it overcomes everything.
... It is quiet in its methods, yet its plans are thoroughly
effective. . . ." And what is not Tao soon comes to an end.

THE FAULT OF COERCION 163

While giving to man a wonderful range of freedom, a play-
space that is enjoyed by no other creature, Heaven has in-
volved him in a network of laws from which he cannot escape.
A fool and his folly soon comes to an end, and the sooner we
resign ourselves to the over-arching law of Love, the expressed
Will of Heaven, the sooner we shall come into our freedom.
For as nothing escapes the net of Heaven, it is better to
resign oneself and be content with one's condition, and so
avoid rushing at the net, which, for aught we know, is spread
about us for our own preservation.

LXXIV

THE FAULT OF COERCION

When the people do not fear death, of

what use is it to overawe them with it as a

penalty ?

And if they were always held in fear of

death, and I could lay my hand upon all

evil doers and slay them, would I dare to

do it?

There is always the Great Executioner I
For one to usurp that office is like a novice

cutting out the work of a great architect.

Such an one rarely fails to cut his own
hands !

i64 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

Travellers in the East have frequently remarked upon the
contempt in which the fear of death is held by Oriental nations,
and especially by the Chinese. It would, perhaps, be nearer
the truth to say that they have an indifference to life, rather
than a contempt of death ; and the reason for this is not far to
seek. Generations of indigence and misery, consequent upon
tyranny and oppression, and the absence of any moral restraint,
has made life a burden to millions, so that even suicide appears
to them the right thing under certain unusually distressful con-
ditions. And certainly the sudden and brief pang of death is
not to be compared with the pain of living the life endured by
thousands to-day. So that it is not to be wondered at that
murderous instincts are awakened in the more robust and
suicidal tendencies in the more sensitive of the sufferers. The
sudden breaking down of the reservoirs of life — what is it but
a premature old age? It would come about in the natural
course of things.

The wrong to humanity is apparently inconsiderable. What
is it to the world that it should be relieved of the senile, the
incurably diseased, the indigent, and miserable, and all those
who prefer the uncertainties of death to the ever-present fact
of irremediable suffering? The man destroyed, Nature will
build up another in his place. What then ?

Laotze teaches a doctrine of conservatism. The wrong, he
would say, is in usurping the right to destroy that which man
himself cannot rebuild. " My body," he says, " is not my own.
It is the delegated exuvias of God." This, again, is the reason
why the Sage finds it difficult to act, and because of his proper
regard for life he does not look on death as a trivial thing.
He looks upon death as an enemy to that part of him which is
subject to death. He has respect for his enemies, but seeks to
avoid them and so to conquer them.

Capital punishment is distasteful to the higher sentiments of
the educated mind. Two wrongs do not make a right. The
fear of death is no deterrent to the lawless, who are naturally
men of daring ; and as death is sure to come to all, and soonest

THE FAULT OF COERCION 165

to men of reckless nature, of what use is this usurpation of what
is strictly a divine prerogative, the taking away of human life ?
" Vengeance is mine ; I will repay, saith the Lord." For if a
man fall into the hands of the law, he shall presently be free ;
but if he fall into the hands of God, who shall deliver him but
God Himself? And His ways are not our ways.

But Laotze points a greater danger, that of cutting one's
hands in the work of execution. This is worth considering.

Now, who is responsible for the criminal creation — the man
who follows his own brute nature, or the civilisations of the
past which have evolved the criminal product and so have
rendered crime a consequence ? Laotze would say that it rests
with civilised or corrupted methods of government. He would
show that the body corporate of humanity is affected by an
interdependence of action from root to stem, from stem to
branch, from branch to twig, and leaf, and flower, and fruit.
Members of a single constitution, we are all governed by the
same laws ; not directly, perhaps, but successively according
to dependency and relationship. And so, as regards this
"lopping of the branches," this cutting off of the criminal
product, is it not equivalent to cutting one's own hand ? And
if, hurting his hand, a man should cut it off, would that be
so well for him as nursing it back to health and strength ?

Criminal law must always form a part of civil government ;
but it should be corrective and not punitive. At all events we
should give a true accent to every mandate ; and in that which
says : " Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood
be shed," the first word is as important as the rest. If it were
regarded as religiously as the middle and the end, man would
hesitate to begin the work of extermination.

i66 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

LXXV

THE EVIL OF AVARICE

The people suffer from famine on account of
the heavy taxation put upon them.

This is the cause of their need.

The people are difficult to govern because
of the overbearing of their superiors.

This is the cause of their trouble.
The people make Ught of dying because of
the great hardships of trying to live.

This is the reason of their indifference to
death.

Therefore to keep living in obscurity is
better than making overmuch of it.

Heavy taxation may not be regarded as the cause of bad
crops, but it makes those crops difficult to be got at by the
people ; and taxes are great in proportion as the administration
becomes complex and ambitious. Self-government consists,
largely, in foregoing our ambitions, in being content, and in
refraining from conflict with others. It is a great work, but
much easier than it is made out to be ; and the more of it that
each one of us can take in hand, the better for the country. It
is, moreover, considerably cheaper than governing by delegates.

THE EV^L OF AVARICE 167

It is also more effective, for when people govern themselves
they never complain of the rigour of the law. Hence in self-
government there is a greater feeling of freedom vi'ith a greater
amount of self-restraint.

Incidentally Laotze ansvvrers our question as to the cause of
indifference to death, which was raised in the preceding com-
mentary. He shows that it is really on account of the difficulty
of living. Yet, as he elsewhere very pleasantly remarks, " the
people prefer the complex ways." This is indeed true. The
day was young in the West when Laotze was writing these
words. Yet look around and see how true they are of all
times and nations ! The history of England was in the germ
when China was producing its Sages. It was only a seedling
when the Gospel of SimpHcity was first written and taught.
To-day it is such a network of complexity that each year's
almanac is a history of itself. The only danger that threatens
England is her comparative greatness. The greatness of sim-
plicity is one thing, the complexity of greatness is another.

The real strength of a constitution is not to be rightly
measured by the population of the country or the extent of its
possessions and dependencies, but by the facility of living
enjoyed by its units. Now as regards Great Britain and
Ireland, the population in 1862 was over twenty-nine millions,
the poor rate 8s. ^d. per capitum, and the income tax j\d. in
the £. At the present time, with a population of forty-one
millions, the poor rate is over 14^., and the income tax is is. in
the £. The number of paupers has increased pari passu with
the population, while taxation for their relief has increased /ro
rata more than 2s. per head of the population ! For every £1
that is levied for the relief of the poor as poor rate, it costs loj.
for purposes of administration, the actual relief to the poor per
£1 of the rate being only los. Such being the results of
organised charity, of measuring goodwill by the pint and
pound, one may be excused for preferring old-fashioned
methods of spontaneous giving of alms, whereby benevolence
could secure a friend and gratitude a protector.

i68 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

LXXVI

THE DANGER OF STRENGTH

Man at his birth is supple and tender, but in
death he is rigid and strong.

It is the same with everything.

Trees and plants in their early growth are
pliant and soft, but at the end they are
withered and tough.

Thus rigidity and strength are concomitants
of death, but softness and gentleness are
companions of Hfe.

Therefore the warrior who relies on his
strength cannot conquer death, whUe the
powerful tree becomes a mere timber support.

For the place of the strong and the firm is
below, while that of the gentle and yielding
is above.

Laotze pursues the old theme of the virtue of gentleness by
pointing the antithesis of the danger of strength. Swedenborg's
idea of immortality, that it is a condition of " forever growing
young," is supported by our author, who shows that it is a
state of continual and perfect recuperation. From a variety

THE DANGER OF STRENGTH 169

of sustaining sources the body continues to grow in bulk and
strength, its powers are awakened, and the passage from child-
hood to youth and from youth to adolescence is one of steady
increase of vital power. Then there comes a change. The
recuperative power gradually declines, the faculties become
obscured, the functions fail, and in course of time the body
falls into senility and decay.

There is therefore a point, varying with the individual, at
which the recuperative power reaches its climax and begins
to wane. When pathology can determine this organic crisis
and prescribe a remedy, something may be done to lengthen
human life — if that is an end desired, apart from the power
to render it worthier the living. That the medicine is often
worse than the disease, only those know who shrink from death
as the only remedy as yet discovered for the disease of living.

But Laotze here defines the cause of decay and death, and
prescribes a remedy. The cause of death, he says, is non-
adaptability of the individual to the circumstance of life : the
effort to remain fixed while everything else changes, the folly
of exerting one's strength. When a man loses his hold upon
simple things, such as Truth, little children, and the Great Tao,
he is beginning to get old.

With a small stomach and a big chest, one may live a long
time. With great strength and small occasion to display it,
one may reach years that are quite exceptional. But with
a gentle heart and much adaptability, a man may wear out
successive generations.

I70 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

LXXVII

THE TAO OF HEAVEN

Like the bending of an archer's bow is the
Tao of Heaven 1

It brings down that which is high, and
raises up that which is depressed.

It takes away where there is excess, and
gives where there is deficiency.

The Tao of Heaven makes all things equal.

This Tao is not of man.

Man takes from the needy to add to his
own excess.

Who is he that, having a superabundance,
can bring it to the service of the world ?

Only he who has the Tao.

This is why the wise man acts without
expectation of reward, and completes his task
without claiming merit.

For thus he hides his wealth.

THE TAO OF HEAVEN 171

The use of the word Too in this connection is to define the
operation of celestial laws in human life. The simile used
is that of the old cross-bow, whose bending is "like the Tao
of Heaven" in its operations. The Tao is a great leveller
of things, taking away from excess and giving to deficiency.
Thus the " Song of the Virgin" :—

" He hath put down the mighty from their seat.
And hath exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things,
And the rich He hath sent empty away ! "

" This Tao is not of man," or " this is not the way of man,''
says Laotze. The greed of gain, the lust of power, the am-
bition of fame, are the ruling passions of the civilised world.
But the teaching of the Old Philosopher is not less true because
it is unpopular. All virtue is in use, says Laotze. So much as
a man can use, so much only can he bring to human service.
Whatever is in excess of his power to use is so much withheld
from the service of man. Too much learning is, for this reason,
to be disparaged ; while wisdom, by virtue of its simplicity, its
adaptability and efficiency, can always be safely brought to
the test of utility. If a man had no more land than he could
cultivate, his cares would be considerably narrowed, and others
might then enjoy a competence also. But Laotze did not
argue for a literal commonwealth. He was not a dead-leveller.
He recognised the " diversity of gifts " in men, and he would
only have circumscribed a man's possessions by his ability to
use. He had no notion of plotting out the earth into equal
holdings. Henry George was not his disciple. Laotze simjly
specifies that the power to use is the only right to possess.
Thus he takes his place in history as the first of Socialists, and
possibly the wisest. Therefore if a man can use food, let him
have enough ; if he use knowledge, let him take his fill. But
if a man can use the Tao it will come to him of its own accord.
There is nothing that the Tao cannot effect, and nothing
that it does not use. Therefore he who has the Tao has more

172 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

than his share of good things ; but he brings them to the
service of the world. Having a superabundance, he can work
without regard to his reward ; he can perfect his work and
leave it for what it is and the good it may do ; all the merit
being in the doing, not in the power to do or in what is done.
And this merit he also foregoes, because he ascribes things to
their right source.

LXXVIII

ACCEPTING THE TRUTH

Nothing on earth is so weak and yielding as
water, but for breaking down the firm and
strong it has no equal.

This admits of no alternative.

AU the world knows that the soft can wear
away the hard, and the weak can conquer the
strong ; but none can carry it out in practice.

Therefore the Sage says : He who bears
the reproach of his country is really the lord
of the land. He who bears the woes of the
people is in truth their king.

The words of truth are always paradox-
ical 1

ACCEPTING THE TRUTH 173

The yielding nature of water is due to its incompressibility.
Whether Laotze was aware of this fact is not certain, though
we know that the Chinese were anciently informed of many
scientific facts which were independently discovered many
centuries later in the West. That he had good reason to know
the irresistible strength of water is beyond a doubt, for he had
lived on the banks of the Hwang-Ho. Yet although so strong
and invincible, there is nothing more adaptable than water,
and because of its adaptability it is everywhere in evidence.
The element is a favoured one with Laotze, who often compares
it to natural virtue. Everyone knows that the soft and weak
can overcome the hard and strong, yet " none can carry it out
in practice." So there is no great virtue in the knowledge.
As already observed, it is possible for a man to have more
knowledge than he can use. Surfeit is the characteristic of
all ages in civilised countries, because civilisation accentuates
the inequalities of individual faculty, and produces the greatest
disparities of fortune, so that some have a surfeit of good things
and others a surfeit of evils. All are in a bad way. Hence
the knowledge is only a surfeit and a congestion.

The fourth section of this chapter is one that might serve
for the subject-matter of a separate and a larger work. Time
after time we find, in following the track of the Sage's thought,
that the mind is carried forward from the sixth century B.C.
to the dawn of the Christian Era, and the person of the Old
Philosopher assumes the proportions of a Greater Prophet,
or a spiritual herald, sounding through the centuries these
forewords of the new evangel ! One is tempted to ask the
question : Had Laotze any foreknowledge of the great Advent ?
Had he caught some rays from the new Light in advance of
the Western world ? Or is it not that the Spirit of Truth is
accessible to man in all ages and nations, and that although
there is "a diversity of operations," it is ever "the same Spirit".''
Compared with certain passages of Isaiah, which are generally
held to signify the ministry of Jesus Christ, and referred to
the gospel narrative, these words of Laotze have a singular
resonance and meaning (cf. Isa. liii.).

174 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

LXXIX

KEEPING ONE'S BOND

When a compromise is effected after a long
dispute, one of the parties retains a grudge :
how can this be called a good settlement ?

Therefore the wise man takes his part of
the bond, and does not .insist upon having the
other.

The virtuous man attends only to his en-
gagements in the bond, while the man without
virtue contrives for his own advantage.

The Tao of Heaven has no favourites ; it
always aids the good man.

" The wise man," says Laotze, " has a covert agreement with
Heaven, by means of which he is a continual receiver and pre-
server of good things." Being cautious, he does not rashly
enter into a bond, though he is in agreement with all things.
He attends to his own business, and does not stand in the way
of others. What he risks he is prepared to lose, since he
" takes his part of the bond, and does not insist on the other."
He does his own duty, but does not compel others. He is
under bond to Heaven, to his fellows, and to himself ; and to

KEEPING ONE'S BOND 175

these he holds in justice, integrity, and patience, doing his
work in the world, and claiming no merit therein.

" Heaven has no favourites ; it always aids the good man,"
is a statement as true as it is witty. It is an affirmation of the
law of Eternal Good ; it is in perfect agreement with the Scrip-
ture saying — "All things work together for good to them that
love God."

If Heaven discerned between good and evil, the aiding of
the good would be the result of deliberate choice and favour.
But it cannot be so. Some things exist by Divine Will and
others by Divine Indulgence. Only that which is good in
things and persons can claim the recognition of Heaven, and
whatever exists in this world depends upon that which is the
potential good in it. But the virtuous man acts from this
inherent goodness, the potentiality for good having become
active in him ; but the evildoer acts only from the privation
of goodness. We call that dark which is not light, and that
evil which is not good ; but that there is good in things evil
is the warrant of their existence. That is the good which
Heaven "always aids,'' whatever is good in man or the world ;
and of Goodness, Beauty, and Truth there is only one test —
that of Harmony. It is the characteristic of everything Divine.
We see it in the universe of worlds and in the laws which
govern them. We see it in everything which is purely natural,
and we see it in the lives of good men and women. This
is the covert agreement which the good man has with Heaven.
They both make for Harmony.

176 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

LXXX

STANDING ALONE

If I had a small kingdom and but ten or a
hundred men of ability, I would not adminis-
trate with them.

I would teach the people to look upon
death as a grievous thing, and then they
would not go abroad to meet it.

Though they had boats and carriages, yet
they would not go away in them.

Though they had armour, yet they would
never have occasion to wear it.

The people should return to the use of the
quipu.

They should find their coarse food sweet,
think their plain clothes grand, regard their
homes as places of rest, and take delight in
their own simple pleasures.

Though the neighbouring state could be

STANDING ALONE. 177

seen by us, and the crowing of the cocks and
the barking of the dogs could be heard,

Yet my people would grow old, and die
before ever feeling the need of having inter-
course with it.

Our author wouJd have led his people back to their original
simplicity of life and thought. He would not keep them in
ignorance of what was essential to be known, but he would not
give them learning which they could not use without hurt to
themselves and their neighbours. He would not unfit them
for their natural work, nor would he equip them for aught else.
There would be no compulsion. He would teach them that
Death was an enemy to the living, as greed is an enemy to
possession. The people would therefore stay at home in
regular enjoyment of their simple, honest, and contented lives,
valuing that which they had rather than that which they had
not, and regarding what is essential as of greater importance
than what is fortuitous. They would hold to the incident of
life and avoid the accident. They would ply upon their own
rivers and traverse their own roads. The state would maintain
friendly relations with its neighbours, indulgent to those that
were smaller and submissive to those that were greater than it.
Thus it would have patrons and adherents on every side of it.
It would not obtrude in the affairs of others, nor would it strive
for precedence. It would not, therefore, be aggressive. What
it produced in excess of its needs, it would contribute to others
whose produce was deficient. Its excellence would sustain
defects of others. It would have many gates by which to come
in, and only one by which to go out ; and because of its easy
access none would use arms to invade it. Hence it would not
be on the defensive, and would have no use for armour.

"The people would return to the use of the quipu." This

N

178 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

instrument consists of a series of coloured strings, and was
used for reckoning and conveying information by means of
knots tied in them. It was in ancient use in China, and also
among the inhabitants of Mexico and Peru. It preceded the
use of the calculus or pebble, but is probably not so ancient as
the knotched stick, which also was used for the same purposes,
the knotches taking the place of the knots.

But let us return to our Utopia and the text. The people
would go back to the use of such knowledges only as sufficed
for the conduct of their daily lives ; and what was enough for
the fathers of the race would prove enough for those living in
like simplicity and virtue. Contentment and peace would
characterise their lives. Avoiding excesses, they would also
avoid disease, and living natural lives, they would die natural
deaths.

But of the Tao and the knowledge of celestial things, the
Philosopher would sufficiently have informed them. " For who
is he, that, having a superabundance, can bring it to the service
of the world ? Only he who has the Tao ! " He would make
his people wise as well as good ; and this union of wisdom and
goodness, when related to the uses of daily life, is that which
Laotze calls the Tao.

THE EVIDENCE OF SIMPLICITY 179

LXXXI

THE EVIDENCE OF SIMPLICITY

Sincere words are not grand.

Grand words are not faithful.

The man of Tao does not dispute.

They who dispute are not skilled in Tao.

Those who know it are not learned.

The learned do not know it.

The wise man does not lay up treasure.

The more he expends on others, the more
he gains for himself.

The more he gives to others, the more he
has for his own.

This is the Tao of Heaven, which penetrates
but does not injure.

This is the Tao of the wise man, who acts
but does not strive.

i8o LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

In this, his concluding chapter, the Old Philosopher arrays
the evidences of simplicity, the guarantees of the man of Tao.
His doctrine is to be distinguished by its sincerity and sim-
plicity, and not by the grandeur of words. For even in his
day the Truth was obscured by logic, and logic was lost in
rhetoric. Although skilful in replying, the man of Tao is no
controversialist. He is not learned. The Tao is his only
authority. Where others lose themselves in a complex accre-
tion of choice details, the man of Tao discerns only a dust-
heap. What others call the Treasure-house of Knowledge, he
calls the Great Lumber-room. He is economical in use, but
not greedy in acquiring. His wealth consists in giving freely
of what he has for his own, not in the acquisition of what is
another's. He discerns the true nature of persons and things,
but does not use that knowledge to the disadvantage of others ;
or as Laotze says : He penetrates but does not injure ; he acts
but does not strive.

And with these words the Old Philosopher concluded his
book on the Simple Way and continued his journey home.

CONCLUSION

IN order to fully appreciate the singular purity of the
doctrine of Laotze and its reactionary effect on con-
temporary thought in China, it is necessary to refer to the
religious system then dominant in the Empire, namely,
Shintoism.

It is believed to have been established under the pro-
tection of the Chow Dynasty, which began in the person
of Wu Wang, in 1 122 B.C. It had many of the elements
of a natural religion, and certainly bears the marks of a
gradual evolution of the religious idea, being wholly free
from the encumbrance of a mythological development. Its
central concept is that of Humanity being the offspring
of Heaven and Earth ; whence arises the threefold division
of the Spirits or Shins worshipped by the Chinese.

The First Order, that of Celestial Spirits, is headed by
Shang-ti, the Supreme Ruler of Heaven. Beneath this
Supreme Intelligence are five other Rulers and a host of
Celestial Intelligences, including the Spirits of the Sun and
Stars, of the Moon and the Planets.

The Second Order consists of Human Spirits, including
the host of departed ancestors, and to these the most
sincere respect was paid by the people and their rulers.
The human being was said to have two souls : one of a
celestial nature and origin, which, after death, went to
Tien (Heaven), the other being of an earthly nature, to
N 2 181

i82 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

which it reverted entirely after death. This is the reason
for the expression "going up and down," used by the
Chinese to signify death, or the separation of th6 celestial
from the natural soul. The same idea is voiced in
Solomon's Song (chap. xii. 7) : " Then shall the dust return
to the earth, and the spirit to God who gave it." In the
Testament writings also there is this expression: "Who
knoweth the soul of the beast that goeth down, and the
soul of man that ascendeth on high?"

The souls of ancestors were worshipped in all sincerity
and with many ceremonies, in the full beUef that the souls
themselves were present at the sacrifices and pageant.
Thus we find it stated in the Shu King that Yu Shun, the
Emperor, after his accession to the throne, "received the
conclusion in the temple of his accompUshed ancestor,"
and after his tour of the country "he came to the polite
ancestor and made use of a single victim."

The Third Order of Shins were the terrestrial or nature
spirits, animating the four elements under a variety of
forms, together with a vast array of peculiarly choice
"blends" in the shape of winged beasts, fiery flying serpents,
and other monsters, which some believe to have had actual
existence in ancient times, although now extinct, but which
were no doubt derived from composite types of the normal
denizens of the four elements. These terrestrial spirits
were said to be resident in the bodies of inanimate objects,
and in animals of every kind, according to their several
natures, though they were not visible to the human eye.

No mention is made of evil spirits in this system of the
Chow-li, nor are future rewards and punishments referred
to, though the power of rewarding and punishing is certainly
ascribed to Shang-ti, the Supreme Ruler of the Celestial

CONCLUSION 183

World. Indeed, it seems to have been accepted as a matter
of course that the superior part of man, his celestial soul,
went, after death, to its own sphere ; and the inferior part,
the terrestrial soul, to its lower sphere. Neither was called
good or bad, but each was supposed to enjoy its own
nature unaffected by either reward or punishment. But
all earthly rewards and punishments were regarded as the
decrees of Heaven, and this belief led the people into a
stoical indifference to moral merit and demerit and dis-
regard of their physical condition, while, on the other hand,
it fostered servility and greatly aided the tyranny and
oppression of unjust rulers.

Thus, with not even the moderating effects of a popular
belief in future reward or punishment to restrain worldly
ambition or to stimulate public duty, the people would feel
at liberty to indulge themselves on every possible occasion ;
their chief, and perhaps only consideration, being to avoid
the displeasure of those in authority above them. In the
absence of any ethical system or any body of teaching
which made direct appeal to the higher nature of man, it
was only possible to expect a steady moral degeneration in
which tyranny and oppression would be met with servility
and deception. Desire for position and wealth would no
doubt act as stimulants to action among the people, while
fear of the loss of these advantages would tend to restrain
their rulers. Of self-restraint, or of good done upon purely
moral considerations, there can have been but little, the
altruistic, sense being, in course of time, wholly obliterated
or paralysed.

There was not any recognised order of priesthood in
that day in China. Public worship and festivals were
conducted by those holding office as Ministers of State.

i84 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

Only the Emperor himself might sacrifice to the Supreme
Spirit : only the Emperor and Princess to the spirits of the
earth and harvest, and so on, a regular scale of ministra-
tions being allotted to the various official degrees in the
State. In connection with this State religion of the Chow
Dynasty, we find records of magical practices, invocations
to spirits, thaumaturgy, divination, and prognostics. It
was the very quintessence of priestcraft and ritualistic
imposture. Originally it held, doubtless, the elements of
a good and healthy system of thought and practice, but
as those in authority gradually warped it to their own selfish
purposes, it became more and more the depository of all
that was pernicious and degenerate. Instead of ministering
to the spiritual needs of the people, it was used as a means
to feed the ambition and avarice of their rulers.

Such, then, was the State religion into which the Apostle
of Simplicity was born. The particular line of mental and
spiritual evolution by which Laotze came into possession
of this purely moral doctrine of the Too will never be
traced; but it was in the capacity of Royal Librarian,
possibly, that he had access to the fragments of a then
ancient code, of which the world has since lost all original
record, save that ' contained in the compilations of Con-
fucius, where it is mentioned, and the present work, in
which it is stated anew. Laotze frequently refers to " the
ancients," and appears to have known something of their
beliefs and methods of life, to the original simplicity and
virtue of which his whole teaching tends.

This teaching must be judged on its own merits as an
ethical system in relation to the conditions of life to which
it was intended to apply. It cannot be said to be an
evolution of the age in which the 01(1 Philosopher lived)

CONCLUSION 185

as was the contemporary teaching of Confucius, and which
may be regarded as a revival of all that was originally
intended by the State religion of the Chow-li; neither did
it lend itself to a sympathetic reception by the followers
of the Shinto religion. Rather must it be regarded as an
inspiration, and it was not long before it came to be regarded
and popularly received in that light. Its peculiarity consists
in its great purity, simplicity, and altruism — qualities which
by no means distinguished the age and country in which it
was enunciated — while its close rapport with the teachings
of Christianity entitle it to the highest esteem by all who
are favourably disposed to the gbspel of peace and goodwill.
Considering the conditions under which it was delivered,
we cannot but regard the doctrine of the Simple Way
with the deepest interest, and although we know practically
nothing of Laotze apart from his book and the later writings
of Chuang-Tze, his follower, it is impossible to read it through
even once without catching some very vivid glimpses of the
benevolent old man.

And from all we see, the man and his book are in accord
with his teaching. Apart from the merits of the doctrine,
the mere writing of this book at such an advanced age— its
lucidity of expression, its glancing wit, its profound depth,
its brevity, simplicity, and candour — must secure to Laotze
the credit of an unique Uterary achievement. Judged by
the standard of merit contained in the last chapter of this
book, Laotze's work is justified.

In regard to the doctrine itself, one may judge from a
thoughtful study of the original enunciation, or that form in
which it was dehvered by its early promulgators, far better
than by a study of that modern admixture of Shintoism
and Buddhism which is current under the name of Taoism,

i86 LAOTZE: THE SIMPLE WAY

and which cannot rightly be regarded as constituting an
expression of the pure teaching of Laotze.

Of the qualities which distinguish a pure religious teach-
ing, Lecky writes with great discernment, for such teaching
is not solely to be judged by its corporate action, by the
institutions which it creates, by the part which it plays in
the government of the world without. " It is to be found,"
he says, "much more in its action on the individual soul,
and especially in those times when man is most isolated
from society. It is in furnishing the ideas and motives of
individual life, in guiding and purifying the emotions, in
promoting habits of thought and feeling that rise above
the things of earth; in the comfort it can give in age,
sorrow, disappointment, and bereavement; in the seasons
of sickness, weakness, declining faculty, and approaching
death — it is in these that its power is most felt."

Regarded in this light, the teaching of Laotze does not
suffer by comparison with any of the great religious systems
of the world, and when the question is finally forced upon
our consideration, as to where our modern civilisation is
leading us, it is to some expression of the doctrine of
Original Simplicity that our great thinkers will inevitably
revert.

W. BrcDdon and Son, Umited. Plymouth

William Rider & Son, Ltd.

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