THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LAO TAN

Confucius did not attempt to make any radical and healthy reform in all this mass of iniquity, arising from a social condition that was monstrously wrong. He did not pull tile fire from under the kettle—the only radical way of reforming the evils,—he simply added a little more water to the boiling kettle, which, in the end, made things all the worse. This hell was not quenched, but rather made p. xv more fierce. He, himself, was a divorced person. His sons and grandsons were all tainted with the same blemishes. He helped, thus, to increase the anarchy of the times. Hence, Lao Tzû said, "If the sage does not die, robbers will not cease from the land.": and again, "Stop the sages and abandon the wise, and the good of the people will be advanced a hundred-fold. Stop benevolence, abandon righteousness, and, then, the people will have filiality. Stop cleverness, give up the practice of profit, and there will be no robbers." He says again, "When the Great Way is abandoned, the sage (Confucianist) resorts to jen i, benevolence and justice." But these creations are artificial: they have the appearance of wisdom and knowledge; but they give rise to many counterfeits and hypocrisies. "When the six relationships came to lack harmony, filial sons did appear. When the country came to anarchy, loyal ministers appeared." (Chap. 18). From these words we see that Lao Tzû assigned the anarchy of a country to the teaching of the sages. Further, that the sages were illogical in their method of advancing the art of wisdom and cleverness. That is to say, this method was not radical in reforming and guiding society. The true method of reform is to take the fuel from under the pot—the boiling hell.