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38 THEANALECTS : INTRODUCTION.
It was probably in this year that his famous visit to
L_otz_, the unwitting founder of Taoism, occurred.
Acquainting Ching-shu with his earnest desire to visit the
Imperial Capital to see the Imperial Temple services, and
to make enquiries of Laotzfi and other authorities concerning
the ancient ritual and music, Ching-shu named the
alatter to the Duke, Chao [t_, who put a carriage and
horses at his disposal for the journey. The capitnl was at
Lo f4_ now Honanfu in Honan, and Laotzfi was at that
time Keeper of the Imperial Archives there. He was
apparently recognised as an authority on questions affecting
ritual, and one may surmise that he was already wellknown
as a moral philosopher. The following is Dr.
Legge's account of the interview :
"They met and freely interchanged their views, but no
reliable account of their conversations has been preserved.
In the 5th Book of the Le ICe, which is headed, "The
philosopher Tsang asked," Confucius refers four times to
the views of Laou-tsze on certain points of funelal
ceremonies, and in the Family Sayings, Book XXIV., he
tells Ke K'ang what he had heard from him about ' The
Five Tes,' but we may hope their conversation turned
also on more important subjects. Sze ma Ts'een, favourable
to Laou-tsze, makes him lecture his visitor in the
following style :--' Those whom you talk about are dead,
and their bones are mouldered to dust ; only their words
remain, When the superior man gets his time, he mounts
aloft ; but when the time is against him, he moves as if his
feet were entangled. I have heard that a good merchant,
though he has rich treasures deeply stored, appears as if