Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1868

“In the sixth century BC, therefore almost at the same time as Pythagoras, and two centuries before Socrates and Plato, lived in the province of Lounan, China, Lao-Tse, one of the greatest philosophers who have ever lived. Coming from the humblest origin, Lao-Tse had no other means of learning than reflection and numerous trips. When he was about fifty years old, either because his philosophical dispositions developed by study finally bore fruit, or because he had unconsciously combined this fruit with a particular revelation, he wrote his book The Supreme Reason and Virtue, a work regarded as authentic, despite its antiquity, by Chinese historians of all sects, and with even more authority since it was certainly not included in the burning of books ordered by the Emperor Liang-ti, two hundred years before the Christian era.



For the sake of clarity, let us first say what Lao-Tse designated by the word “tas”; it was a denomination given by him to the first being; powerless as he was to call him by his eternal and unchanging name, he called him his principal attributes: tas, supreme reason. It seems, at first glance, that the Chinese word ... (Here our correspondent transcribes this word in Chinese characters that our printer cannot reproduce), whose figurative pronunciation is tas, has some phonetic analogy with the Theos of the Greeks or the Deus of the Latins, whence came our French word Dieu; and yet no one believes that the Chinese language and the Greek language have ever had any points in common. Moreover, the recognized anteriority of the Chinese nation and civilization suffices to prove that this is a typically Chinese expression.^[2]



The tas, or Lao-Tse's supreme universal reason, has two natures or modes of being: the spiritual or immaterial mode, and the bodily or material mode. It is the spiritual nature that is the perfect nature; it is from her that man emanated; it is to her that he must return by freeing himself from the material ties of the body; annihilation of all material passions, estrangement from worldly pleasures, are effective means of making oneself worthy of her and returning to her. But let's listen to Lao-Tse speaking for himself. I will use the translation of Pauthier, a sinologist as erudite as he is conscientious. His works on the Chinese philosopher and his doctrine are more remarkable and freer from suspicion because, having died a long time ago, he was ignorant of even the name of the Spiritist Doctrine.

In the twenty-first section of Supreme Reason, Lao-Tse establishes a true cosmogony:



The material forms of the great creative power are only the emanations of the tas; it is the tas that produced the existing material beings. (Before) it was just complete confusion, indefinable chaos; it was chaos, a confusion inaccessible to human thought. Amid this chaos, there was a subtle, life-giving principle; this subtle, vivifying principle was the supreme truth. Amid this chaos, there were beings, but beings in germs; imperceptible, indefinite beings. Amid this chaos, there was a principle of faith. From antiquity to the present day, his name has not faded away. He carefully examines the good of all beings. But how do we know the virtues of the crowd? By this tas, this supreme reason.



Beings with bodily forms were formed from raw material, confused. Before the existence of heaven and earth, it was only an immense silence, an immeasurable void, without perceptible forms. He existed alone, infinite, immutable. He circulated in space without feeling any attenuation.



We can consider him as the mother of the universe; I do not know his name, but I designate him by his attributes, and I say Great, Elevated. Being (recognized) elevated, great, I name it: extended far away. Being (recognized) lying in the distance, I name it: distant, infinite.

Being (recognized) distant, infinite, I name it: the one that is the opposite to me.



Man has his law on Earth. Earth has its law in heaven; heaven has its law in the Tas or the supreme universal reason; supreme reason has its own law.



Elsewhere, Lao-Tse says:



We must strive to achieve the last degree of immateriality, to be able to maintain the greatest possible immutability. All beings appear in life and fulfill their destinies; we contemplate their successive renewals. These material beings are constantly showing themselves with new outer forms. Each of them returns to its origin. To return to one's origin means to become at rest: to become at rest means to accomplish one's mandate.

To accomplish one's mandate means to become eternal; to know that one becomes eternal (or immortal) means to be enlightened; not to know that one becomes immortal is to be given over to error and to all kinds of calamities. If we know that we become immortal, we contain, we embrace all beings; embracing all beings in a common affection, one is just, equitable to all beings; being just and equitable to all beings, we have the attributes of the sovereign; possessing the attributes of the sovereign, one reaches the divine nature; from the divine nature, one comes to be identified with the tas; being identified with the supreme universal reason, one subsists eternally; the body itself being subjected to death, there is no need to fear any annihilation.



Let us now see what the moral of the Chinese philosopher is.



The holy man does not have an inexorable heart; he makes his heart according to the hearts of all men. The virtuous man, we must treat him as a virtuous man; the vicious man, we must also treat him as a virtuous man: this is the wisdom and virtue.



The sincere and faithful man, we must treat him as a sincere and faithful man; the insincere and unfaithful man, we must also treat him as a virtuous man: This is wisdom and sincerity.



These maxims correspond to what we call indulgence and charity; Spiritism, by showing us that progress is a law of nature, clarifies this thought better by saying that it is necessary to treat the vicious man as being able to one day, and following his successive existences, become virtuous, to which we must provide him with the means, instead of relegating him to the pariahs of eternal condemnation, and thinking that we ourselves may have been worse than him.



The whole doctrine of Lao-Tse exudes the same leniency, the same love for men, together with an extraordinary elevation of feelings. His wisdom is revealed above particularly in the following passage, in which he reproduces the famous axiom of ancient wisdom: Know thyself, without knowing Thales's formula:



He who knows men is educated; those who know themselves are truly enlightened.

He who subjugates men is powerful; he who tames himself is truly strong.



He who accomplishes difficult and meritorious works leaves a lasting memory in the memory of men. He who does not dissipate his life is imperishable; he who dies and is not forgotten has eternal life.





It is certain, as the eminent translator points out, that one would not find in Greece, before Aristotle, a series of maxims so logically devised. As for the principles themselves, they certainly constitute a doctrine, and if it is true that there is nothing incompatible with what reason admits, why should it not be as good as so many others that barely support the discussion? “True religion, it has been said, necessary for salvation, must have started with mankind;” Now, since it is essentially one, like the truth, like God, the primitive religion was already Christianity, just as Christianity since the Gospel is the primitive religion considerably developed.



Don’t we see retraced, in this series of teachings, the very principles that serve as the basis of Spiritism, despite one point only, with a slight pantheistic tendency of non-distinction, or rather of the identification of the creature sanctified with the Creator, a tendency that, if it is negative, it can be due to the influence of the environment where the philosopher Lao-Tseu lived, to a too long continuation, perhaps, given to this remarkable chain of arguments, or finally, to the imperfect interpretation made by us of his own thought?



If, then Lao-Tse remains among those powerful voices of wisdom and reason through the centuries, as it has been proven, that the providential and natural laws of human societies bring up at certain times, to protest energetically against a state of social dissolution, and bring the minds back to the eternal destinies of mankind; if his doctrine can be the basis of true religion, that as we have seen, is necessary for salvation, it must have existed at all times. Since the philosophical principles of Spiritism are, in substance, only those of Lao-Tse, can we not consider the truth of the Spiritist Doctrine as being proven, morally, outside the teachings of Christ?”



Observation: As we can see, the Chinese are not quite as barbaric as it is generally believed; they have long been our elders in civilization, and some of them would serve more than one of our contemporaries in terms of philosophy. How is it then that a people that had wise men like Lao-Tse, Confucius and others, still have customs so little in harmony with such beautiful doctrines? The same could be said of Socrates, Plato, Solon, etc., in relation to the Greeks; of Christ, whose precepts are far from being practiced by all Christians.



The works of these men that appear from time to time among peoples, like meteors of intelligence, are never sterile; they are seeds that remain latent for many years, that benefit only a few individuals, but that the masses are incapable of assimilating. The peoples are slow to change, until a violent shock brings them out of their apathy.



It should be noted that most of the philosophers have paid little attention to the practice of their ideas; fully involved in the work of design and development, they have neither the time, nor sometimes even the aptitude necessary for the execution of what they conceive. This work is up on others that are imbued of them, and it is often these same works, skillfully implemented, that serve, after several centuries, to mobilize and enlighten peoples.



Few Chinese, apart from a few scholars, undoubtedly know Lao-Tse; today that China is open to the western nations, it would not be impossible the latter would help popularize the works of the philosopher in his own country; and who knows if the points of contact that exist between his doctrine and Spiritism will not one day be a link for the fraternal alliance of beliefs? What is certain is that when all religions recognize that they worship the same God by different names; that when they grant him with the same attributes of sovereign goodness and justice; when they will only differ in the form of worshiping, the religious antagonisms will fall. It is to this result that Spiritism must lead.