NO. 2 FOLK RELIGION IN SOUTHWEST CHINA — GRAHAM 55 



If the kings and barons can keep the Tao, 



The world will of its own accord be reformed. 

 When reformed and rising to action, 



Let it be restrained by the Nameless pristine simplicity. 

 The Nameless pristine simplicity 



Is stripped of desire (for contention). 

 By stripping of desire quiescence is achieved, 



And the world arrives at peace of its own accord. (P. 603.) 



The softest substance in the world 

 Goes through the hardest. 

 That-which-is-without-form penetrates 



that-which-has-no-crevice ; 

 Through this I know the benefit of taking no action. 

 The teaching without words 

 And the benefits of taking no action 

 Are without compare in the universe. (P. 607.) 



Win the world by doing nothing. (P. 613.) 



Therefore the sage desires to have no desire, 

 And values not objects difficult to obtain. (P. 617.) 



For love is virtuous in attack. 

 And invulnerable in defense. 

 Heaven arms with love 

 Those it would not see destroyed. (P. 618.) 



When people are hungry, 



It is because their rulers eat too much tax-grain. 



Therefore the unrulincss of hungry people 



Is due to the interference of their rulers. (P. 6ji.) 



Who can have enough and to spare to give to 



the entire world? 

 Only the man of Tao. (P. 622.) 



During the centuries after Lao Tzu, the Taoist religion steadily 

 degenerated. Search for the elixir of life and longevity and even 

 immortality, divination, witchcraft, and the use of magic ceremonies 

 to control and exorcise demons, which were believed to cause sick- 

 ness and other calamities and to accomplish other purposes, became 

 the essential features of the Taoist religion. Ch'in Shih Huang, "the 

 first emperor," rejected Confucianism and favored a degenerate Tao- 

 ism. Some of the Han dynasty emperors favored Taoism, and dur- 

 ing the latter half of the second century A. D. Chang Tao-ling, the 

 first Taoist pope, practically made Taoism identical with the popular 

 superstitions of his time. The emperors of the T'ang dynasty gen- 

 erally favored Taoism because they believed themselves to be de- 

 scendants of Lao Tzu. From the time of Ch'in Shih Huang to the 

 end of the Manchu dynasty (1912), some emperors favored and 



