OF THE TAO EXEMPLIFIED IN HISTORY 6 



human wit and knowledge will fail of success. The only 

 sure way is to have the springs of action centred in the 

 inspiration of the eternal and inexhaustible Spirit. Let a 

 man draw on this inexhaustible and unfailing supply — and 

 he will have at command abundant powers. But this de- 

 mands a sense of poverty of spirit — the only condition 

 that will ensure the true riches of life. 



The creations of the sages, the laws and ceremonial 

 prescriptions then, it may be assumed, were artificial and 

 harmful. Since they were an obstacle to these very con- 

 ditions; and at best the maxims and ceremonials were dead 

 and lifeless things, and incomparably inferior to the touch 

 of the human spirit by the spirit of the vital and ever 

 mobile Tao. Dead law and lifeless traditions wither all 

 progress in their icy hands. The Tao is clear, limpid, vital, 

 active, always operating and operative. Let men lean on 

 this, and cease from self-action. Thus their non-action 

 would be supremely efficient. 



The philosophy of Confucius then was a failure : since 

 his method relied too much on human ingenuity. But there 

 was a more original mind at hand in the exposition of the 

 true art of life. Lao Tan had preached a more mobile truth. 

 His Tao was fundamentally more suited to the world. This Tao 

 was great: it filled Heaven and Earth; it was macrocosmos 

 and microsmos. It filled everywhere and everything and 

 pervaded even the non-spatial. Liu An then grasped a more 

 spiritual idea of the Universe and life than was outlined in 

 the minutiae of the sages. The guidance offered by the 

 maxims of books was unreliable and insufficient. The 

 necessary thing was to have the mind of the ruler under the 

 immediate and direct guidance of the Tao. Thus equipped, 

 the ruler would always be able to meet the varied events of 

 life, and he never need be nonplussed by the infinite flux 

 of circumstances. 



Contemporary literature was not held in any high 

 esteem. Brute force was what the militarists of the day 

 extolled. Literature was decadent in ruling circles. The 

 land had been robbed of civil dignity by the burning of the 

 books. Scholars did not venture to pride themselves on their 

 art. Confucianism did not wield its later autocratic powers. 

 Therefore there was no predominant school of thought. 

 They were all equally looked on with contempt. In that 

 respect at any rate it was more easy to have a. free dis- 

 cussion of ideas. Probably therefore it was not difficult to 

 examine and formulate independent systems of thought. 

 A man could belong to any school of thought without being 

 under the stigma of unorthodoxy. 



