THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LAO TAN

p. xii judged, depended on purity, spirituality, humility and yieldingness." These sentences may help us to understand the thoughts that sprung up in the mind of Lao Tzû as he contemplated the lessons of history and the deplorable conditions that prevailed at his time. So, in a sense, the Tao Tê Ching is the philosophy of the history of contemporary times. That little classic of 5,000 words was the background of Huai Nan Tzû and his friends, in their studies and writings. So, in reading his essays, the ideas of Lao Tan must be kept in mind and read with that in view. We may consider Lao Tan's ideas from six points of view. 1. His cosmology. This is based on Naturalism. He recognised a fundamental cause. Comparing his view with that of Abraham, we find that he was less positive. His is a more abstract view than Abraham's. The latter was more concrete in his theory. He gave the name of Jehovah to the Power which he saw manifested in the universe. This concrete appellation was a useful personification of the abstract. It, at once, revealed the genius of the Hebrew people in religious matters. It was a more intimate mode of thinking of the Power behind the universe, than that thought of by Lao Tzû in the word Naturalism. It was, also, less definite than the name used by Abraham. But they are similar in one sense: both recognise the manifestation of Power. This is explicitly stated in Chapter 25 of the Tao Tê Ching. "There was something undefined and complete, coming into existence before Heaven and Earth. How still it was and formless, standing alone, and undergoing no change, reaching everywhere and in no danger (of exhaustion)! It may be regarded as the mother of all things. "I do not know its name, and I give it the designation of the Tao." "I am, also, forced to add the name Great." Great Tao.