poems, codes of rites, music and laws which they had in the middle
states, while yet rebellion and disorder were of frequent occurrence,
and asked how good order was secured among the wild people, who
had none of those appliances. The envoy smiled, and replied that
the troubles of China were occasioned by those very things of which
the duke vaunted, and that there had been a gradual degeneration
in the condition of its states, as their professed civilization had
increased, ever since the days of the ancient sage, Hwang Tî, whereas
in the land he came from, where there was nothing but the primitive
simplicity, their princes showed a pure virtue in their treatment of
the people, who responded to them with loyalty and good faith.
“The government of a state,” said he in conclusion, “is like a man’s
ruling his own single person. He rules it, and does not know how
he does so; and this was indeed the method of the sages.” Lâo-tsze
did not need to go further afield to find all that he has said about
government.
We have confined ourselves to the Tâoism of the Tâo Teh King without touching on the religion Tâoism now existing in China, but which did not take shape until more than five hundred years after the death of Lâo-tsze, though he now occupies the second place in its trinity of “The three Pure or Holy The Tâoism of to-day. Ones.” There is hardly a word in his treatise that savours either of superstition or religion. In the works of Lieh-tsze and Chwang-tsze, his earliest followers of note, we find abundance of grotesque superstitions; but their beliefs (if indeed we can say that they had beliefs) had not become embodied in any religious institutions. When we come to the Ch’in dynasty (221–206 B.C.), we meet with a Tâoism in the shape of a search for the fairy islands of the eastern sea, where the herb of immortality might be gathered. In the 1st century A.D. a magician, called Chang Tâo-ling, comes before us as the chief professor and controller of this Tâoism, preparing in retirement “the pill” which renewed his youth, supreme over all spirits, and destroying millions of demons by a stroke of his pencil. He left his books, talismans and charms, with his sword and seal, to his descendants, and one of them, professing to be animated by his soul, dwells on the Lung-hû mountain in Kiang-si, the acknowledged head or pope of Tâoism. But even then the system was not yet a religion, with temples or monasteries, liturgies and forms of public worship. It borrowed all these from Buddhism, which first obtained public recognition in China between A.D. 65 and 70, though at least a couple of centuries passed before it could be said to have free course in the country.
Even still, with the form of a religion, Tâoism is in reality a conglomeration of base and dangerous superstitions. Alchemy, geomancy and spiritualism have dwelt and dwell under its shadow. Each of its “three Holy Ones” has the title of Thien Tsun, “the Heavenly and Honoured,” taken from Buddhism, and also of Shang Ti or God, taken from the old religion of the country. The most popular deity, however, is not one of them, but has the title of Yü Wang Shang Tî, “God, the Perfect King.” But it would take long to tell of all its “celestial gods,” “great gods,” “divine rulers” and others. It has been doubted whether Lâo-tsze acknowledged the existence of God at all, but modern Tâoism is a system of the wildest polytheism. The science and religion of the West meet from it a most determined opposition. The “Venerable Philosopher” himself would not have welcomed them; but he ought not to bear the obloquy of being the founder of the Tâoist religion. (J. Le.)
LA PAZ, a western department of Bolivia, bounded N. by
the national territories of Caupolican and El Beni, E. by El
Beni and Cochabamba, S. by Cochabamba and Oruro and W.
by Chile and Peru. Pop. (1900) 445,616, the majority of whom
are Indians. Area 53,777 sq. m. The department belongs to
the great Bolivian plateau, and its greater part to the cold,
bleak, puna climatic region. The Cordillera Real crosses it
N.W. to S.E. and culminates in the snow-crowned summits of
Sorata and Illimani. The west of the department includes
a part of the Titicaca basin with about half of the lake. This
elevated plateau region is partially barren and inhospitable,
its short, cold summers permitting the production of little besides
potatoes, quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) and barley, with a
little Indian corn and wheat in favoured localities. Some attention
is given to the rearing of llamas, and a few cattle, sheep
and mules are to be seen south of Lake Titicaca. There is a
considerable Indian population in this region, living chiefly in
small hamlets on the products of their own industry. In the
lower valleys of the eastern slopes, where climatic conditions
range from temperate to tropical, wheat, Indian corn, oats and
the fruits and vegetables of the temperate zone are cultivated.
Farther down, coffee, cacao, coca, rice, sugar cane, tobacco,
oranges, bananas and other tropical fruits are grown, and the
forests yield cinchona bark and rubber. The mineral wealth
of La Paz includes gold, silver, tin, copper and bismuth. Tin
and copper are the most important of these, the principal tin
mines being in the vicinity of the capital and known under the
names of Huayna-Potosi, Milluni and Chocoltaga. The chief
copper mines are the famous Corocoro group, about 75 m.
S.S.E. of Lake Titicaca by the Desaguadero river, the principal
means of transport. The output of the Corocoro mines, which
also includes gold and silver, finds its way to market by boat and
rail to Mollendo, and by pack animals to Tacna and rail to Arica.
There are no roads in La Paz worthy of the name except the
5 m. between the capital and the “Alto,” though stage-coach
communication with Oruro and Chililaya has been maintained
by the national government. The railway opened in
1905 between Guaqui and La Paz (54 m.) superseded the latter
of these stage lines, and a railway is planned from Viacha to
Oruro to supersede the other. The capital of the department is
the national capital La Paz. Corocoro, near the Desaguadero
river, about 75 m. S.S.E. of Lake Titicaca and 13,353 ft. above
sea-level, has an estimated population (1906) of 15,000, chiefly
Aymará Indians.
LA PAZ (officially La Paz de Ayacucho), the capital of
Bolivia since 1898, the see of a bishopric created in 1605 and
capital of the department of La Paz, on the Rio de la Paz or
Rio Chuquiapo, 42 m. S.E. of Lake Titicaca (port of Chililaya)
in 16° 30′ S., 68° W. Pop. (1900) 54,713, (1906, estimate)
67,235. The city is built in a deeply-eroded valley of the
Cordillera Real which is believed to have formed an outlet of
Lake Titicaca, and at this point descends sharply to the S.E.,
the river making a great bend southward and then flowing
northward to the Beni. The valley is about 10 m. long and 3 m.
wide, and is singularly barren and forbidding. Its precipitous
sides, deeply gullied by torrential rains and diversely coloured
by mineral ores, rise 1500 ft. above the city to the margin of
the great plateau surrounding Lake Titicaca, and above these
are the snow-capped summits of Illimani and other giants of
the Bolivian Cordillera. Below, the valley is fertile and covered
with vegetation, first of the temperate and then of the tropical
zone. The elevation of La Paz is 12,120 ft. above sea-level,
which places it within the puna climatic region, in which the
summers are short and cold. The mean annual temperature
is a little above the puna average, which is 54° F., the extremes
ranging from 19° to 75°. Pneumonia and bronchial complaints
are common, but consumption is said to be rare. The surface
of the valley is very uneven, rising sharply from the river on
both sides, and the transverse streets of the city are steep and
irregular. At its south-eastern extremity is the Alameda, a
handsome public promenade with parallel rows of exotic trees,
shrubs and flowers, which are maintained with no small effort
in so inhospitable a climate. The trees which seem to thrive
best are the willow and eucalyptus. The streets are generally
narrow and roughly paved, and there are numerous bridges across
the river and its many small tributaries. The dwellings of the
poorer classes are commonly built with mud walls and covered
with tiles, but stone and brick are used for the better structures.
The cathedral, which was begun in the 17th century when the
mines of Potosi were at the height of their productiveness, was
never finished because of the revolutions and the comparative
poverty of the city under the republic. It faces the Plaza
Mayor and is distinguished for the finely-carved stonework of
its façade. Facing the same plaza are the government offices
and legislative chambers. Other notable edifices and institutions
are the old university of San Andrés, the San Francisco church,
a national college, a seminary, a good public library and a
museum rich in relics of the Inca and colonial periods. La
Paz is an important commercial centre, being connected with
the Pacific coast by the Peruvian railway from Mollendo to
Puno (via Arequipa), and a Bolivian extension from Guaqui to
the Alto de La Paz (Heights of La Paz)—the two lines being
connected by a steamship service across Lake Titicaca. An
electric railway 5 m. long connects the Alto de La Paz with the
city, 1493 ft. below. This route is 496 m. long, and is expensive
because of trans-shipments and the cost of handling cargo at
Mollendo. The vicinity of La Paz abounds with mineral wealth;
most important are the tin deposits of Huayna-Potosi, Milluni
