The Book of Tea | Page 8

the Relative.
It should be remembered in the first place that Taoism, like its
legitimate successor Zennism, represents the individualistic trend of the
Southern Chinese mind in contra-distinction to the communism of
Northern China which expressed itself in Confucianism. The Middle
Kingdom is as vast as Europe and has a differentiation of
idiosyncrasies marked by the two great river systems which traverse it.
The Yangtse-Kiang and Hoang- Ho are respectively the Mediterranean
and the Baltic. Even to-day, in spite of centuries of unification, the
Southern Celestial differs in his thoughts and beliefs from his Northern
brother as a member of the Latin race differs from the Teuton. In
ancient days, when communication was even more difficult than at
present, and especially during the feudal period, this difference in
thought was most pronounced. The art and poetry of the one breathes
an atmosphere entirely distinct from that of the other. In Laotse and his
followers and in Kutsugen, the forerunner of the Yangtse-Kiang
nature-poets, we find an idealism quite inconsistent with the prosaic
ethical notions of their contemporary northern writers. Laotse lived five
centuries before the Christian Era.
The germ of Taoist speculation may be found long before the advent of
Laotse, surnamed the Long-Eared. The archaic records of China,
especially the Book of Changes, foreshadow his thought. But the great
respect paid to the laws and customs of that classic period of Chinese
civilisation which culminated with the establishment of the Chow
dynasty in the sixteenth century B.C., kept the development of
individualism in check for a long while, so that it was not until after the
disintegration of the Chow dynasty and the establishment of

innumerable independent kingdoms that it was able to blossom forth in
the luxuriance of free-thought. Laotse and Soshi (Chuangtse) were both
Southerners and the greatest exponents of the New School. On the
other hand, Confucius with his numerous disciples aimed at retaining
ancestral conventions. Taoism cannot be understood without some
knowledge of Confucianism and vice versa.
We have said that the Taoist Absolute was the Relative. In ethics the
Taoist railed at the laws and the moral codes of society, for to them
right and wrong were but relative terms. Definition is always
limitation--the "fixed" and "unchangeless" are but terms expressive of a
stoppage of growth. Said Kuzugen,--"The Sages move the world." Our
standards of morality are begotten of the past needs of society, but is
society to remain always the same? The observance of communal
traditions involves a constant sacrifice of the individual to the state.
Education, in order to keep up the mighty delusion, encourages a
species of ignorance. People are not taught to be really virtuous, but to
behave properly. We are wicked because we are frightfully
self-conscious. We nurse a conscience because we are afraid to tell the
truth to others; we take refuge in pride because we are afraid to tell the
truth to ourselves. How can one be serious with the world when the
world itself is so ridiculous! The spirit of barter is everywhere. Honour
and Chastity! Behold the complacent salesman retailing the Good and
True. One can even buy a so-called Religion, which is really but
common morality sanctified with flowers and music. Rob the Church
of her accessories and what remains behind? Yet the trusts thrive
marvelously, for the prices are absurdly cheap, --a prayer for a ticket to
heaven, a diploma for an honourable citizenship. Hide yourself under a
bushel quickly, for if your real usefulness were known to the world you
would soon be knocked down to the highest bidder by the public
auctioneer. Why do men and women like to advertise themselves so
much? Is it not but an instinct derived from the days of slavery?
The virility of the idea lies not less in its power of breaking through
contemporary thought than in its capacity for dominating subsequent
movements. Taoism was an active power during the Shin dynasty, that
epoch of Chinese unification from which we derive the name China. It

would be interesting had we time to note its influence on contemporary
thinkers, the mathematicians, writers on law and war, the mystics and
alchemists and the later nature-poets of the Yangtse-Kiang. We should
not even ignore those speculators on Reality who doubted whether a
white horse was real because he was white, or because he was solid,
nor the Conversationalists of the Six dynasties who, like the Zen
philosophers, revelled in discussions concerning the Pure and the
Abstract. Above all we should pay homage to Taoism for what it has
done toward the formation of the Celestial character, giving to it a
certain capacity for reserve and refinement as "warm as jade." Chinese
history is full of instances in which the votaries of Taoism, princes and
hermits alike, followed with varied and