Tao Teh King

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1903. Excerpt: ... PREFACE. Lao Tgze, so named, the immortal author of the Tao Teh King, the only writing he left to posterity, was born in the year 604 before the Christian era, in the third year of the Emperor Ting-Wang, of the expiring Chow dynasty, in what is now the province of Ho-nan, but which was then a part of the great State of Kau. He disappeared, at the age of about one hundred years, in voluntary exile into the unknown feudal and barbarian lands northwest of China, as described in the Epilogue in this translation. The wall and the northwest, or barrier-gate, there described, it is needless to say, were not a part of the Great Wall of China, which was not constructed until nearly four centuries later, but were the wall and gateway which protected the valleys leading from the unknown regions beyond. Lao Tsze was contemporary with Confucius, but was his senior by about fifty-four years. When Confucius was about thirty-five years old he visited the old philosopher, who was then nearly ninety years old, at his residence at the court of Kau. In an interview Lao severely condemned the system of Confucius, charging that it was based on a man-made and artificial code of ethics and ceremonials, that it ignored the fundamental principles of life and mind, and tended to obscure the divinity, dignity and immortality of man, and the spirituality which constituted the energy and purpose of the entire universe, not only in its origin, but in its eternal progress. Confucius, in a state of wonder, left him, saying to his disciples that he could understand the ways of the birds, of the fish, and of the beasts; how to snare the running ones wilh nooses, how to entrap the swimming ones with nets, and how to take the flying ones with arrows. But the dragon; he knew not how this one could bestride the winds and...