referred to as Hsüan Chiao instead of Tao Chiao, which was the popular name. The term Hsüan Chiao never came into popular use, but by its adoption the Yüan dynasty Emperors went one step further in the glorification of Lao Tzŭ by adding their approval to the canonization bestowed upon him by the T'ang Emperor T'ai Tsung, and by using the canonized name to designate this religion. Chao Mêng-fu was himself a descendant of the Imperial house of Sung, which had placed Confucius upon the highest pedestal of honour, recognizing him as the equal of Heaven and Earth; but in the inscription for this Taoist temple, Chao exhausted his literary vocabulary in praise of Lao Tzŭ, whom he associated with the Yellow Emperor, a predecessor, and with the magician Chang Tao-ling, a successor. It will thus be seen that the T'ang dynasty founded Taoism, and the Yüan dynasty stabilized it.
The relation of Taoism to the mythological characters of China with all their fabulous deeds and mysterious theories of the universe, is complete. If we were to depend upon the views and records of the School of Letters (Ju Chia) we should have scant material, for we should be confined to the great names associated with the building up of an established government, and with the spread of the civilization instituted and developed by them. Studies in Buddhism lead us far afield into the early mythology of India. It is in Taoism as it now exists with its assumed original inspiration from the Yellow Emperor, that we find incorporated all the mythological characters of early China, and their theories of life and the universe.
