The Philosophy of Lao Tzu

The Philosophy of Lao Tzu*

The philosophy associated with the name of Lao Tzu, who was born about 500 B.C., is popularly known as Taoism, from Tao, the omnipresent, omnipotent, and unthinkable principle on which it is based. It operated with Confucianism, though in an opposite direction, in challenging the old faith. Confucianism, with its shadowy monotheistic background, was a practical system for everyday use, and it may be said to contain all the great ethical truths to be found in the teachings of other religions. Lao Tzu put forward a doctrine of Inaction, by virtue of which all things were to be accomplished; a perpetual accommodation of self to one's surroundings, with the minimum of effort, all progress being spontaneous and in the line of least resistance.

In one utterance of Lao Tzu which have survived the wreck of time, we find an allusion to a spiritual world. According to Han Fei (died B.C. 233), who wrote several chapters to elucidate the sayings of Lao Tzu, the following is the correct interpretation:

"Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish (i.e. do not overdo it).

"If the empire is governed according to Tao, evil spirits will not be worshipped as good ones.

"If evil spirits are not worshipped as good ones, good ones will do no injury. Neither will the Sages injure the people. Each will not injure the other. And if neither injures the other, then there will be mutual profit."

The latter portion is explained by another commentator as follows:--

"Spirits do not hurt the natural. If people are natural, spirits have no means of manifesting themselves; and if spirits do not manifest themselves, we are not conscious of their existence as such. Likewise, if we are not conscious of the existence of spirits as such, we must be equally unconscious of the existence of inspired teachers as such;
and to be unconscious of the existence of spirits and of inspired teachers is the very essence of Tao."

In the hands of Lao Tzu's more immediate followers, Tao became the Absolute, the First Cause, and finally One in whose obliterating unity all seemingly opposed conditions of time and space were indistinguishably blended. This One, the source of human life, was placed beyond the limits of our visible universe; and in order for human life to return at death and to enjoy immortality, it was only necessary to refine away corporeal grossness according to the doctrines of Lao Tzu. Later on, this One came to be regarded as a fixed point of dazzling luminosity, in remote ether, around which circled for ever and ever, in the supremest glory of motion, the souls of those who had successfully passed through the ordeal of life, and who had left the slough of humanity behind them.

The final state is best described by a poet of the ninth century A.D.

Like a whirling water-wheel,
Like rolling pearls,
Yet how are these worthy to be named?
They are but illustrations for fools.
There is the mighty axis of Earth,
The never-resting pole of Heaven;
Let us grasp their clue,
And with them be blended in One,
Beyond the bounds of thought,
Circling for ever in the great Void,
An orbit of a thousand years,
Yes, this is the key to my theme.

Esoteric Taoism naturally suggested the prolongation of earthly life by artificial means; hence the search for an elixir, carried on through many centuries by some disciples of Taoism.

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*Based on Religions Of Ancient China by Herbert A. Giles, M.A., LL.D.