Lao-tzu, A Study in Chinese Philosophy

Lao-tzu, A Study in Chinese Philosophy is by Thomas Watters. The preface says that a considerable portion of the pages has already appeared in The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, and that its reappearance in its present form requires an apology. The preface also says that the subject of the work is one in which very few take any interest.

A passage says that the study should be carried on in one’s own room without any adventitious aids, and that the student must overcome his affections and passions before he can attain to a knowledge of the great mysteries of Nature. On some occasions Confucius is represented as holding the maxim that what a man would not desire another to do to him he should not do to others, and he is also represented as objecting to the words of Lao-tzŭ that injury should be repaid by kindness. The writer bids farewell to Lao-tzŭ and calls the study of his work and his life, as also of the fortunes of his doctrines, a difficult task but not without interest and instruction.