“If,” the Taoists argued, “we would renounce our sageness and discard our wisdom, it would be better for the people a hundredfold. If we could renounce our benevolence and discard our rightness, the people would again become filial and kindly. If we could renounce our artful contrivances and discard our scheming for gain, there would be no thieves and robberies.”[43]

Here we meet with the doctrine of the World’s Ages, already referred to. Men were perfect to begin with, because, as Lao Tze says, “they did not know they were ruled”. “In the age of perfect virtue,” Kwang Tze writes, “they attached no value to wisdom.… They [[317]]were upright and correct, without knowing that to be so was righteousness; they loved one another, without knowing that to do so was benevolence; they were honest and leal-hearted without knowing that it was loyalty; they fulfilled their engagements, without knowing that to do so was good faith; in their simple movements they employed the services of one another, without thinking that they were conferring or receiving any gift. Therefore their actions left no trace, and there was no record of their affairs.”

To this state of perfection, Lao Tze wished his fellow-countrymen to return.

That the idea of the Tao originated among those who went far and wide, searching for the elixir of life, is suggested by Lao Tze’s chapter, “The Value Set on Life”. He refers to those “whose movements tend to the land (or place) of death”, and asks, “For what reason?” The answer is, “Because of their excessive endeavours to perpetuate life”.

He continues:

“But I have heard that he who is skilful in managing the life entrusted to him for a time travels on the land without having to shun rhinoceros or tiger, and enters a host without having to avoid buff coat or sharp weapon. The rhinoceros finds no place in him into which to thrust its horn, nor the tiger a place in which to fix its claws, nor the weapon a place to admit its point. And for what reason? Because there is in him no place of death.”[44]

It would appear that Lao Tze was acquainted not only with more ancient writers regarding the Tao, but with traditions regarding heroes resembling Achilles, Siegfried, and Diarmid, whose bodies had been rendered invulnerable by dragon’s blood, or the water of a river in the Otherworld; or, seeing that each of these heroes [[318]]had a spot which was a “place of death”, with traditions regarding heroes who, like El Kedir, plunged in the “Well of Life” and became immortals, whose bodies could not be injured by man or beast. The El Kedirs of western Asia and Europe figure in legends as “Wandering Jews” or invulnerable heroes, including those who, like Diarmid, found the “Well of Life”, and those who had knowledge of charms that rendered them invisible or protected them against wounds. The Far Eastern stories regarding the inhabitants of the “Islands of the Blest”, related in a previous chapter, may be recalled in this connection. Having drunk the waters of the “Well of Life” and eaten of the “fungus of immortality”, they were rendered immune to poisons, and found it impossible to injure themselves. When, therefore, we find Lao Tze referring to men who had no reason to fear armed warriors or beasts of prey, it seems reasonable to conclude that these were men who had found and partaken of the elixir of life, or had accumulated “stores of vitality” by practising breathing exercises and drinking charmed water, or by acquiring “merit”, like the Indian ascetics who concentrated their thoughts on Brahma (neuter).

In the chapter, “Returning to the Root”, in his Tao Teh King, Lao Tze appears to regard the Tao as a preservative against death. He who in “the state of vacancy” returns to primeval simplicity and perfectness achieves longevity through the workings of the Tao.

“Possessed of the Tao, he endures long; and to the end of his bodily life is exempt from all danger of decay.”[45]

Here the Tao acts like the magic water that restores [[319]]youth. It is “soul substance”, and is required by the Chinese gods as Idun’s apples are required by the Norse gods. Says Lao Tze: