7 ·q¤ý (B.C. 519-475)


the principal ministers. He was there not as a politician, but as
an inquirer about the ceremonies and maxims of the founders of
the existing dynasty. Lao Tan [1], whom he had wished to see,
generally acknowledged as the founder of the Taoists, or
Rationalistic sect (so called), which has maintained its ground in
opposition to the followers of Confucius, was then a curator of
the royal library. They met and freely interchanged their views,
but no reliable account of their conversations has been preserved.
In the fifth Book of the Li Chi, which is headed 'The philosopher
Tsang asked,' Confucius refers four times to the views of Lao-
tsze on certain points of funeral ceremonies, and in the
'Narratives of the School,' Book XXIV, he tells Chi K'ang what he
had heard from him about 'The Five Tis,' but we may hope their
conversation turned also on more important subjects. Sze-ma
Ch'ien, favourable to Lao-tsze, makes him lecture his visitor in
the following style:-- 'Those whom you talk about are dead, and
their bones are moldered to dust; only their words remain. When
the superior man gets his time, he mounts aloft; but when the
time is against him, he moves as if his feet were entangled. I
have heard that a good merchant, though he has rich treasures
deeply stored, appears as if he were poor, and that the superior
man whose virtue is complete, is yet to outward seeming stupid.
Put away your proud air and many desires, your insinuating habit
and wild will [2]. These are of no advantage to you. This is all
which I have to tell you.' On the other hand, Confucius is made to
say to his disciples, 'I know how birds can fly, how fishes can
swim, and how animals can run. But the runner may be snared, the