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42
THE TEXTS OF TÂOISM.
CH, V.
Pang, the founder of the dynasty of Han, in B.C. 208, and by his wisdom and bravery contributed greatly to his success over the adherents of Khin, and other contenders for the sovereignty of the empire. Abandoning then a political career, he spent the latter years of his life in a vain quest for the elixir of life.
Among Liang's descendants in our first century was a Kang Tâo-ling, who, eschewing a career in the service of the state, devoted himself to the pursuits of alchemy, and at last succeeded in compounding the grand elixir or pill, and at the age of 123 was released from the trammels of the mortal body, and entered on the enjoyment of immortality, leaving to his descendants his books, talismans and charms, his sword, mighty against spirits, and his seal. Tâo-ling stands out, in Taoist accounts, as the first patriarch of the system, with the title of Thien Shih, “Master or Preceptor of Heaven.' Hsuan Zung of the Thang dynasty in 748, confirmed the dignity and title in the family; and in 1016 the Sung emperor Kån Zung invested its representative with large tracts of land near the Lung-hû mountain in Kiang-hsî. The present patriarch—for I suppose the same man is still alive-made a journey from his residence not many years ago, and was interviewed by several foreigners in Shanghai. The succession is said to be perpetuated by the transmigration of the soul of Kang Tâoling into some infant or youthful member of the family; whose heirship is supernaturally revealed as soon as the miracle is effected?
This superstitious notion shows the influence of Buddhism on Tâoism. It has been seen from the eighteenth of the Books of Kwang-zze what affinities there were between
InAnonse of Taoism and the Indian system; and there can Buddhism on be no doubt that the introduction of the latter
Tâoism. into China did more than anything else to affect the development of the Tâoistic system. As early as the time of Confucius there were recluses in the country, men who had withdrawn from the world, disgusted with its
1 See Mayers's C. R. Manual, Part I, article 35.
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| SR No. | 007682 |
| Book Title | Questions of King Milinda Part 02 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | T W Rhys Davids |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1894 |
| Total Pages | 2240 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 38 MB |