When we turn from the treatise of Laozi to the writings of Chuang-tzŭ , the greatest of his followers, we are not left in doubt as to his belief in an early state of paradisiacal Taoism. Huang Ti , the first year of whose reign is placed in BC 2697, is often introduced as a seeker of the Tao , and is occasionally condemned as having been one of the first to disturb its rule in men’s minds and break up “the State of Perfect Unity.” He mentions several sovereigns of whom we can hardly find a trace in the records of history as having ruled in the primeval period, and gives us more than one description of the condition of the world during that happy time. 6