“the words,” that is, the Taoistic writings “of Huang Ti and Laozi from an old man who lived on the ho -side.” The origin of this old man was not known, but Yüeh Chʽên taught what he learned from him to a Mr. Ko, who again became preceptor to Tsʽao Tsʽan, the chief minister of Chʽi , and afterwards of the new dynasty of Han , dying in BC 190.
Referring now to the catalogue of the Imperial Library of the dynasty of Sui ( AD 502–556), we find that it containd many editions of Lao’s treatise with commentaries. The first mentioned is The Tao Te Ching , with the commentary of the old man of the ho -side, in the time of the emperor Wên of Han ( BC 179–142). It is added in a note that the dynasty of Liang ( AD 502–556) had possessed the edition of “the old man of the ho -side, of the time of the Warring States; but that with some other texts and commentaries it had disappeared.” I find it difficult to believe that there had been two old men of the ho -side, both teachers of Taoism and commentators on our Ching , but I am willing to content myself with the more recent work, and accept the copy that has been current—say from BC 150, when Ssŭ-ma Chʽien could have been little more than a boy. Taoism was a favourite study with many of the Han emperors and their ladies. Huai-nan Tzŭ, of whose many quotations from the text of Lao I have spoken, was an uncle of the emperor Wên. To emperor Ching ( BC 156–143), the son of Wên, there is attributed the designation of Lao’s treatise as a ching , a work of standard authority. At the beginning of his reign, we are told, some one was commending to him four works, among which were those of Laozi and Chuang-tzŭ. Deeming that the work of Huang-tzŭ and Laozi was of a deeper character than the others, he ordered that it should be called a ching , established a board for the study of Taoism, and issued an edict that the book should be learned and recited at court, and throughout the country. Thenceforth it was so styled. We find Huang-fu Mi ( AD 215–282) referring to it as the Tao Te Ching .
The second place in the Sui catalogue is given to the text and commentary of Wang Pi or Wang Fu-ssŭ, an extraordinary scholar who