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Handbook of Universal Literature - From the Best and Latest Authorities by Anne C. Lynch Botta
page 32 of 786 (04%)

In the sixth century B.C., the corruption of the ancient religion having
reached its height, a reaction took place which gave birth to the second,
or philosophical period, which produced three systems. Lao-tse, born 604
B.C., was the founder of the religion of the Tao, or of the external and
supreme reason. The Tao is the primitive existence and intelligence, the
great principle of the spiritual and material world, which must be
worshiped through the purification of the soul, by retirement, abnegation,
contemplation, and metempsychosis. This school gave rise to a sect of
mystics similar to those of India.

Later writers have debased the system of Lao-tse, and cast aside his
profound speculations for superstitious rituals and the multiplication of
gods and goddesses.

Confucius was the founder of the second school, which has exerted a far
more extensive and beneficial influence on the political and social
institutions of China. Confucius is a Latin name, corresponding to the
original Kung-fu-tse, Kung being the proper name, and Fu-tse signifying
reverend teacher or doctor. He was born 551 B.C., and educated by his
mother, who impressed upon him a strong sense of morality. After a careful
study of the ancient writings he decided to undertake the moral reform of
his country, and giving up his high position of prime minister, he
traveled extensively in China, preaching justice and virtue wherever he
went. His doctrines, founded on the unity of God and the necessities of
human nature, bore essentially a moral character, and being of a practical
tendency, they exerted a great influence not only on the morals of the
people, but also on their legislation, and the authority of Confucius
became supreme. He died 479 B.C., at the age of seventy-two, eleven years
before the birth of Socrates. He left a grandson, through whom the
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