[124] The Taoist doctrines are contained in the _Tao-teh-king_, supposed to have been written by Lao-tsze, a sage who lived in the fifth century B.C. The religion which grew out of his philosophy became in time degenerate, absorbed the worst elements of Buddhism, and is to-day a system of gross superstitions, magic, and sorcery, which has undeniably a blighting effect upon morality. [125] De Groot, _The Religion of the Chinese_ (1910), pp. 139 ff. [126] _Ibid._ 138. [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. [137] _Confucian Analects_ (The Chinese Classics, 2d ed., vol. i), bk. xvii, chap. ii. The student of biology will see in this view an anticipation of the latest teaching of modern science in respect to the relative importance of heredity and education in the determining of character. [138] “There is nothing in this world so dangerous for the national safety, public health and welfare as heterodoxy, which means acts, institutions, doctrines not based upon the classics.”--DE GROOT, _The Religion of the Chinese_ (1910), p. 48. [139] Confucius thus describes himself: “A transmitter and not a maker, believing in and loving the ancients” (_Confucian Analects_, bk. vii, chap. i). [140] _The Religions of China_ (1881), p. 255.