"The ultimate end is God. He is manifested in the laws of nature. He is
the hidden spring. At the beginning of all things, He was."

Taoism, however, does not seem to have succeeded altogether, any more
than Confucianism, in altogether estranging the Chinese people from
their traditions of a God, more or less personal, whose power was the
real determining factor in human events. The great general Hsiang Yu,
B.C. 233-202, said to his charioteer at the battle which proved fatal
to his fortunes, "I have fought no fewer than seventy fights, and have
gained dominion over the empire. That I am now brought to this pass is
because God has deserted me."



CHAPTER IV -- MATERIALISM

Yang Hsiung.--Yang Hsiung was a philosopher who flourished
B.C. 53 - A.D. 18. He taught that the nature of man at birth is neither
good nor evil, but a mixture of both, and that development in either
direction depends wholly upon environment. To one who asked about God,
he replied, "What have I to do with God? Watch how without doing
anything He does all things." To another who said, "Surely it is God who
fashions and adorns all earthly forms," he replied, "Not so; if God in
an earthly sense were to fashion and adorn all things, His strength
would not be adequate to the task."

Wang Ch'ung.--Wang Ch'ung, A.D. 27-97, denies that men after death live
again as spiritual beings on earth. "Animals," he argues, "do not become
spirits after death; why should man alone undergo this change? . . .
That which informs man at birth is vitality, and at death this vitality