[127] Legge, The Religions of China (1881), p. 229.
[128] De Groot, The Religion of the Chinese (1910), p. 143.
[129] Nietzscheism is in essence at one with Taoism. Nietzsche insists that man should behave as Nature behaves; for instance, that the strong should prey upon the weak. The difference between Lao-tsze and Nietzsche lies in their different readings of the essential qualities of the universe. See below, p. 355.
[130] Taoism is too lofty a doctrine for the multitude. They are enjoined to imitate the ancient sages, and as these imitated the way of heaven and earth, in imitating them they are really imitating the universe.
[131] De Groot, The Religion of the Chinese (1910), p. 143.
[132] The imitation of the qualities of nature “have given existence to important state institutions, considered to be for the nation and rulers matters of life and death.” (De Groot, The Religion of the Chinese (1910), p. 139).
[133] The Works of Mencius (The Chinese Classics, 2d ed., vol. ii), bk. vi, pt. i, chap. ii, 2.
[134] “This inference [that man is naturally good] comes into prominence in the classics as a dogma, and therefore has been the principal basis of all Taoistic and Confucian ethics to this day” (De Groot, The Religion of the Chinese (1910), p. 137). Every schoolboy is taught this doctrine: “Man commences life with a virtuous nature” (Martin, The Lore of Cathay (1901), p. 217).
[135] The Works of Mencius, bk. vii, pt. i, chap. ii, 2. And so Confucius: “An accordance with this nature [man’s] is called the Path of Duty” (The Doctrine of the Mean, chap. i; The Chinese Classics, 2d ed., vol. i).
[136] The Works of Mencius, bk. vi, pt. i, chap. vii, 2, 3.