THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LAO TAN

AN INTRODUCTION TO HUAI NAN TZÛ Written from materials supplied by Mr. M. T. Lien. The writings and the philosophy of Huai Nan Tzû, are deeply rooted in the ideas of Lao Tan, the reputed founder of Taoism. In order, therefore, to have a better understanding of the teaching of Huai Nan Tzû, it is necessary to be acquainted with the learning of Lao Tan. It is well to remember that there were two influences in the training of Lao Tan, one being his vocation, the other his environment. His vocation was that of Royal Historiographer. He had, thus, the means of knowledge and of intercourse denied to most. His environment, undoubtedly, coloured his views and modified all his ideas. It, in many respects, directed his thoughts, as he surveyed his surroundings, to a consideration of the true and lasting foundation of social and political life. It was the conditions of Eastern Chou that formed his environment. The laws of the State were in decay and human relationships in ruins. Loyalty and filial piety, which are the pillars of society, were rotten; and truth and justice were languishing. Ministers murdered their princes and sons their fathers. There was anarchy and disloyalty. Lao Tan, being the historian, knew well the history of the country from ancient times, and could trace the causes that had produced the lamentable anarchy of his times. This explains a passage in the Han work, Records of the Arts and Literature of the Han ### which says that the Taoist stream of ideas issued from the Ministry of History. The Minister had studied and knew the successive periods of the rise and fall, the vitality and dissolution of kingdoms, through the ages, and, therefore, appreciated important principles and grasped the essentials of the success and failures of government. The principles of success, he