GREEK AND CHINESE THOUGHT. 179 



It has no right to be considered a Sacred Book, 

 unless we are prepared to number Aristotle's 

 metaphysics among the Sacred Books of Greece. 

 Indeed, till the middle of the eighth century of our 

 era (742 A.D.) it was not so classed. 



Chuang-Tzu's philosophy is a protest against 

 Confucianism, and an attempt to restore the 

 idealism of Lao-Tzu. Confucius sums up every- 

 thing in duty to one's neighbour, ignoring the 

 supernatural and the invisible ; Chuang-Tzu pro- 

 tests against this mere worldly wisdom, and, under 

 cover of the name of Lao-Tzu, develops a pure 

 mysticism. 



The main positions of Chuang-Tzu's philoso- 

 phical system are summed up in the first seven 

 chapters, the rest of the volume being an expan- 

 sion and a commentary. 



Chuang-Tzu's first chapter is mainly critical and 

 destructive, pointing out the worthlessness of ordi- 

 nary judgments, and the unreality of sense know- 

 ledge. The gigantic Rukh, at the height of 90,000 

 //, is a mere mote in the sunbeam. For size is 

 relative. The cicada, which can just fly from tree 

 to tree, laughs with the dove at the Rukh's high 

 flight. For space also is relative. Compared with 

 the mushroom of a day, P'eng-Tsu is as old - 

 Methuselah ; but what is his age to thaf 

 fabled tree, whose spring and auturr 



