GREEK AND CHINESE THOUGHT. 197 



NOTE. 



ON THE RELATION OF TAOISM TO CONFU- 

 CIANISM. 



It would be interesting to know whether in the 

 undisputed utterances of Lao-Tzu (i.e. putting on 

 one side the " Tao-Te-Ching"), Quietism and the 

 glorification of Inaction are as prominent as they 

 are in Chuang-Tzu. One would be prepared a 

 priori to find that they are not. Lao-Tzu was 

 born at the end of the seventh century B.C., and 

 was, therefore, some fifty years older than Con- 

 fucius, with whom, in 517 B.C., he is said to have 

 had an interview. 1 By the time of Chuang-Tzu, 

 who was possibly contemporary with Mencius, and 

 therefore some two or three centuries after Lao- 

 Tzu, Confucianism had become to some extent 

 the established religion of China, and Taoism, like 

 Republicanism in the days of the Roman Empire, 

 became a mere opposition de salon. Under such 

 circumstances any elements of mysticism latent in 

 Lao-Tzu's system would develop rapidly. And the 

 antagonism between the representatives of Lao- 

 Tzu and Confucius would proportionately increase. 

 But philosophy does not become mystical and take 

 refuge in flight until it abandons all hope of con- 

 verting the world. When effort is useless, the 



1 Chuang-Tzii, ch. xiv. p. 182-189. 



