out ancient kings, I admired nothing but
virtue; then, when I went out of doors, I was attracted by the charms
of wealth and power. These two feelings fought inside me, and I began to
lose flesh; but now love of virtue has conquered, and I am fat."

The teachings of the Old Philosopher were summed up in the word _Tao_,
pronounced as _tou(t)_, which originally meant a road, a way; and
as applied to doctrines means simply the right way or path of moral
conduct, in which mankind should tread so as to lead correct and
virtuous lives. Later on, when Buddhism was introduced, this Taoism,
with all its paradoxes and subtleties, to which alchemy and the
concoction of an elixir of life had been added, gradually began to lose
its hold upon the people; and in order to stem the tide of opposition,
temples and monasteries were built, a priesthood was established in
imitation of the Buddhists, and all kinds of ceremonies and observances
were taken from Buddhism, until, at the present day, only those who know
can tell one from the other.

Although alchemy, which was introduced from Greece, via Bactria, in the
second century B.C., has long ceased to interest the Chinese public, who
have found out that gold is more easily made from the sweat of the
brow than from copper or lead; and although only a few silly people now
believe that any mixture of drugs will produce an elixir of life, able
to confer immortality upon those who drink it; nevertheless, Taoism
still professes to teach the art of extending life, if not indefinitely,
at any rate to a considerable length. This art would probably go some
way towards extending life under any circumstances, for it consists
chiefly in deep and regular breathing, preferably of morning air,
in swallowing the saliva three times in every two hours, in adopting
certain positions for the body and limbs, which are also strengthened
by gymnastic exercises, and finally, as borrowed from the Buddhists, in
remaining motionless for some hours a day, the eyes shut, and the mind
abstracted as much as possible from all surrounding influences. The
upshot of these and other practices is the development of "the pure
man," on which Chuang Tzu (_Chwongdza_), a Taoist philosopher of the
third and fourth centuries B.C., to be mentioned again, writes as
follows: "But what is a pure man? The pure men of old acted without
calculation, not seeking to secure results. They laid no plans.
Therefore, failing, they had no cause