Misc. Chinese Texts Taoism
Footnotes
1 "Bonds" with written characters on them superseded the "knotted cords" of the primitive age. That the material of the bonds should be, as here represented, slips of ivory, would seem to anticipate the progress of society.
2 The Hwangs preceded the Tis in the Taoistic genesis of history; and as being more simple were Taoistically superior to them; so it was with the Tis and the Wangs or Kings.
3 This of course was Lao-Tze.
4 So it was, according to the story, that Lao-Tze drew near to the barrier gate, when he wished to leave China.
5 The Ko is a river flowing from Ho-nan into An-hui, and falling into the Hwai, not far from the district city of Hwai-yuan.
6 The nine wells, or bubbling springs, near the village where Lao was born, are mentioned by various writers; but I fail to see how the growth of the trees about them indicated the ruin of his temple.
7 The "desert sands" were, no doubt, what we call "the desert of Gobi." The trees referred to were "in the extreme East."
8 "The sage beneath the Pillar" must be Lao-Tze.
9 "The smoke," I suppose, "of the incense, and from the offerings."
10 Taoist monks are called "Plumaged or Feathered Scholars," from the idea that by their discipline and pills they can emancipate themselves from the trammels of the material body, and ascend (fly up) to heaven. Arrived there, as Immortals or Hsien, it further appears they were constituted into a hierarchy or society, of which some of them were "officers," higher in rank than others.
11 An allusion to the text of the hexagrams of the Yi King, where the explanations of them by King Wan — his thwan, are followed by the symbolism of their different lines by the duke of Chau — his hsiang.