human activities as found in social organizations. These are only general distinctions and cannot be pressed too far, but are sufficient to indicate the diverging tendencies of thought in China from earliest time.
It is convenient to start with Confucius and Lao Tzǔ of the sixth century b.c., as the point from which two distinct systems take their origin, although these men are only exponents of systems which had already become settled. Tao, nature, with its constant changes, became the centre of Liberalism in opposition to the Confucian theory of absolutism represented by the Emperor. The Liberal School believed in bringing the head of the state to the same account for his personal actions as the humblest person; whereas under the Conservative system of Confucius, the Emperor is restricted by no law. Even though it is conceded that moral considerations should determine his conduct, no legal pressure could be brought to bear upon him as upon an ordinary man. The standard commentator of the Liberal School, Pan Ku, makes I Yin, who is said to have lived in the eighteenth century b.c., the first exponent of the principles of Tao. It was I Yin who advised T'ang to plot rebellion against the existing Hsia dynasty, and remained with him as adviser when he established the new dynasty of Shang. The next two exponents of the Tao are given by this commentator as T'ai Kung and Yü Hsiung, who were attached to Wên Wang at the time when he was planning a revolt against the cruel rule of the last years of the Shang dynasty. The next exponent of Tao, according to Pan Ku, was Kuan I-wu, Chief Minister of the state of Ch'i, and the first to make a feudal state assume hegemony among the other states while acknowledging the nominal authority of the ruling Chow dynasty. These authoritative examples of the early Tao teaching show it to have been in marked contrast with the Conservatism of the School of Letters which looked with tolerance upon the action of rulers simply for the reason that they were rulers.
