Lao-tse

From The Vigil of a Nation by Lin Yutang, 1944

. . . in the evening a number of . . . friends gathered to continue their discussion of China's industrial problems, with digressions into the philosophy of Laotse . . . Laotse's doctrine of "inaction" or laissez faire was . . . the ordering of actions so that great and lasting results were obtained with the least effort, by making an ally of the natural sentiments and instincts of men, or, . . . by acting in accordance with the principles of nature. . . .

( pages 52-3 )

Comment :   "That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves." (Thomas Jefferson, as attibuted by many Internet outfits that is).

It seems that Lao-tse was not yet known in the U.S. at the times of Thomas Jefferson etc. ; otherwise, that seemingly remote thinker would perhaps have been mentioned.

WPT, 27 Aug 05

 

The Huashan peaks are part of the great Tsinling mountain range that is just layers and layers of dog-tooth jagged rocks south of the Sian plains, any one of which would be as difficult to scale. But long ago the Taoists were determined to capture and occupy the place, as one of the strategic points in the cosmogony of the universe. Huashan was the Western Sacred Mountain, one of the five in ancient China (East, West, North, South, and Center) corresponding to the Five Elements¹ in the scheme of things. Moreover, Taoist saints had lived and died here, or rather were reported to have gone up to heaven when their days on earth wee numbered. So no Buddhist priest need think of invading this sacred territory.

I had a feeling that I might find Laotse himself still living here, transformed into a sheep or a donkey, cogitating the universe. Anyway, Laotse passed through Tungkwan on buffalo-back and disappeared from mankind. Legend said he told someone to meet him in the shape of a black lamb in Szechuen, and someone did meet him in Chengtu, at the point where the Black Lamb Temple now stands. But the legend might be incorrect, or he might be simultaneously in two places, appearing as a black lamb in Chengtu, while his spirit was really roving among the peaks of Huashan.

( page 146 )

New York : John Day, 1944, 1945.

      ¹ The "Five Elements" models may have some universal application so long as one remembers that the relations between the 'elements' are not symmetrical.

Personally, I would recommend Jeremy Bentham's distinction made between the real entities and the fictitious entities ; one can view the relations between the real entity incorporeal (e.g. me, the quintessence, the '5th element') and the real entities corporeal (bodies, or portions of matter-'earth')—asymmetrical.

The relations between the real entity incorporeal (me) and other real entities incorporeal (e.g. you, another, and so on) may be approximately symmetrical or asymmetrical depending on the role or function had by one or the other.

Then one considers the secondary qualities, such as space (placement), or, 'air' ; and the fictitious entity called 'time' (flux, 'water').

The 'fire' (energy) is a state of the 'earth' ; one could just as well or better state the converse. The relations between the 'elements' are in no way symmetrical, all in all it seems to me that some of the representations such as by a pentagram were misconceptions.

WPT, 27 Aug 05.

Laozi. [?] Title(s) Wisdom of Laotse. Korean Changja ka Noja rŭl iyagi hada / Im Ŏ-dang chiŭm ; Chang Sun-yong omgim. Edition Chʻopʻan. Publisher Sŏul-si : Chajak Namu, 1998. Paging 332 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. Subject Headings Laozi. Dao de jing. Zhuangzi. Nanhua jing. Other Entries Lin, Yutang, 1895-1976. Chang, Sun-yong. Laozi. Dao de jing. Selections. 1998. Zhuangzi. Nanhua jing. Selections. 1998. Format qKorean Korean

Laozi. [?] Title(s) Dao de jing. English Tao te ching : liber CLV11 / translated with an introduction and commentary by Aleister Crowley. Publisher York Beach, ME : Samuel Weiser, 1995. Paging xvi, 112 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. Notes The Equinox ; v. 3, no. 8. Includes bibliographical references (p. 109-110) and index.

Laozi. [?] Uniform Title [ Dao de jing. English] Title Aleister Crowley's Tao Teh King [translated from the Chinese] : Liber CLVII / edited and introducted by Stephen Skinner. Publisher London : Askin Publishers, 1976. Description [5], 116 p. : facsims ; 22 cm. Note Translation of Dao de jing. ISBN 0950387649 : Language English

Laozi. [?] Title(s) Dao de jing. English. 1948 The wisdom of Laotse, tr., edited and with an introd. and notes by Lin Yutang. Publisher New York, Modern Library [1948] Paging xx, 326 p. 19 cm. Series Modern library of the world's best books ; 262 Notes Contains the "Book of Tao," each chapter of which is followed by a comparable passage from Chuangtse's writings; supplemented by "Prolegomena" and "Imaginary conversations between Laotse and Confucius" by Chuangtse.