These  three  books  of  Lao,  Chwang,  and  Kwan
have  exercised  a  dominating  influence  upon  the
development  of  Taoism  as  a  separate  system  of
religion.  It  was  they  in  particular  which  gave
authoritative  directions  for  the  adjustment  of  man
and  his  conduct  to  the  characteristics  and  qualities
of  the  Tao  of  the  Universe;  and  as  those  direc-
tions are,  moreover,  the  most  ancient  known,  they  ,
have  always  been  regarded  as  the  holiest,  that  is^-
to  say,  as  the  foundation  stones  on  which  was
built  up  the  ethical  and  religious  system  that  is
called  the  Tao  of  Man.  The  writings  of  Lao,
Chwang  and  Kwan  were  never  acknowledged  by


30     Development  of  Religion  in  China


Confucianism  as  its  classical  books.  The  reason
of  this  exclusion  is  as  yet  unknown ;  for  the  present
we  must  content  ourselves  with  the  supposition
that  they  were  not  believed  to  have  been  produced
by  Confucius,  nor  by  any  members  of  the  school
inspired  by  him.  The  question  deserves  investiga-
tion, seeing  that  this  exclusion  marks  the  bifurca-
tion of  Taoism  and  Confucianism  from  the
primeval  universistic  stock.  From  the  moment
this  process  of  separation  was  accomplished,  that
is  to  say,  from  the  Han  epoch,  the  writings  of  Lao,
Chwang,  and  Kwan  have,  with  a  few  others  of
less  significance,  stood  by  themselves  as  a  special
set  of  Taoist  bibles,  though  set  fraternally  side  by
side  with  the  bibles  of  Confucianism.
