Again, the doctrine of the Tao-tê Ching, that violence and excess cannot endure, appears also in the Confucian works. It occurs, for instance, in the Li-chi, and it is worthy of observation that the illustrious commentator on the passage regards the expression there used as a quotation, but does not know from what work.[34] Had the words been identical there could not have been any possibility of doubt. There is also a common saying among the Chinese, derived from the Yi-ching, that when the sun has reached his meridian he begins to decline, and when the moon has reached her full she begins to wane, thus intimating the fickleness of fortune. This idea is represented in the Tao-tê Ching under a different figure.
In many passages of the books which go by his name, Confucius is made to impress on his disciples the necessity of attending to what is unseen and internal, and taking it for granted that the visible and external will follow as a natural consequence.[35] In this too he is nearly like to Lao-tzŭ. One passage of the Lun-yü even speaks of Li (禮), or the full complement of external virtues, on which Confucius generally lays great stress as something to be postponed to the genuine qualities of the heart.[36] The whole of the thirty-third chapter of the Chung-yung may be regarded as a sort of commentary on what Lao-tzŭ has said on this and some other topics. The passages quoted in this chapter from the Shi-ching are merely texts which have not the slightest reference to the homilies on them except in one or two cases.
Further, as Lao-tzŭ believed in a long-past time of simplicity and purity, so also did Confucius, and his love for antiquity and his esteem for the ancient sages were perhaps even greater than those of Lao-tzŭ.[37] Of the five characteristics given of the old kings who had kept good government in their kingdoms the first is that they honoured those who had Te (德), that is, their perfect inborn nature, and this is explained to mean those who approach Tao. Both sages represent the ancients as solid and not showy, as wanting in intellectual arts but perfect in simple virtue. They should be, both thought, in the conduct of life no less than in affairs of State the models for all after generations. Turn to the good old paths wherein our forefathers walked who were better than we, is what Lao-tzŭ and Confucius equally teach. Go back, says the latter, to the days of Yao and Shun, and Yü, and kings Wên and Wu, and Duke Chou, and make them your patterns in all things even as they made Heaven theirs. Ascend still further, says Lao-tzŭ, and follow the lives of those primitive worthies who died before the arts and vices of civilisation had appeared on the earth.
What the inducements are which Lao-tzŭ holds out to a life of self-subduing and virtue has been seen already, and those which the Confucian books hold out to such a life are very similar.[38] An insight into the mysteries of Providence, length of years, a peaceful death, and a good name among men are the chief rewards for such a life. Confucius in one place is represented as making perfect knowledge precede self-purification.[39] This, however, is not, I think, in accordance with the general spirit of his teachings, and if he ever did make the statement reported it is probably only one of those nonsensical utterances which he seems to have occasionally made, solely for the purpose of having a long string of short sentences. The statement in question is even on Chu-hsi’s interpretation absurd and impossible.
In their views about death, also, our two sages seem to have been much alike. They do not refer to a state of existence hereafter, and they seem to have regarded the grave as the end of man, so far as his consciousness of being was concerned, at least. On this subject, however, we must speak with caution as the utterances of both are few and dark.
A few general observations will now conclude these rather disjointed remarks about the points of similarity in the Tao-tê Ching and the Confucian classics. The Chung-yung, or Constant Mean, called by Dr. Legge the Doctrine of the Mean, amplifies and illustrates several of Lao-tzŭ’s teachings, and every reader of the book must have observed the frequency of the occurrence of the word Tao in it. The expression Chung-yung is, indeed, sometimes almost convertible with this word, and Confucius speaks of keeping it in terms very similar to those which Lao-tzŭ uses about Tao. Again, the Li (禮) of the Li-chi, Lun-yü, and other works is a word of far wider and deeper signification than our translations usually represent. It seems often to indicate the carrying out of the theoretical Tao into practical life.[40] Several passages in the classic, named from the word, might be cited in support of the above view, and in one remarkable sentence, Confucius says that Li must have had its origin in the “Great One.”[41] The Shu-ching, or Classic of historical excerpts, contains, as has been seen, many doctrines and sayings similar to those of the Tao-tê Ching, and a similar remark applies to the Yi-Ching, especially to its appendix. The collection of early moral and immoral ballads usually dignified by the title Shi-ching or Classic of poetry, as might have been expected, does not throw much light on the influence exercised by Lao-tzŭ over Confucius or the similarity of their teachings, and the same is true of the Chʽun-chʽiu (春秋) or Annals of his Dynasty by Confucius. Descending to Mencius we find in the sayings recorded of him many doctrines very like some of Lao-tzŭ’s, and it is a remarkable fact that he never refers to the latter either in praise or in dispraise. Later Confucianists have regarded their Master as a born sage, and they would generally scout the idea that he was under serious obligations to any one, and to Lao-tzŭ in particular.
While noticing the many points of affinity between Lao-tzŭ and Confucius, we ought not to forget that there are at the same time great and important differences between them. The type of mind of the former does not very much resemble that of the latter. Lao-tzŭ is chiefly synthetic and Confucius analytic in tendency. The former likes to sum up particular virtues and existences, and refer them to one all-embracing idea. The latter shows how one great principle branches off and becomes separated into many secondary odes and finally permeates all things. The one is a philosopher at home, and the other a schoolmaster abroad. The relation between the two may in some respects be compared to that between Plato and Aristotle, if it be lawful to compare small things with great. The character of Plato’s mind also somewhat resembles that of Lao-tzŭ, while Aristotle is very faintly foreshadowed in Confucius. He was a disciple of Plato and yet he came to differ very widely from his master, but not more than Confucius did from Lao-tzŭ. In both cases the disciple became more practical and less theoretical than his master. Yet it must be borne in mind that many of Confucius’ teachings in politics and morals are either nonsensical or at least vague and incomprehensible, and that Lao-tzŭ’s general theories are not seldom applicable to particulars and the actual world.
[1] Page 9.
[2] Vol. ii., Appendix, ch. 12.
[3] Vol. ii., Appendix, ch. 5.