Laozi (Lao Tzu)

About this figure

Laozi is the name tradition gives to the author of the Tao Te Ching, a foundational text of Chinese philosophy, but almost nothing about him can be established with confidence. The earliest surviving biography, written by the historian Sima Qian more than three centuries after Laozi supposedly lived, already admits uncertainty about who he was and when he lived, and offers more than one candidate. The traditional account makes him a court archivist in the state of Zhou during the 6th century BC, an older contemporary of Confucius who eventually rode west out of China on an ox and, at a border guard's request, wrote down his teaching before vanishing from history.

Most modern scholarship treats the Tao Te Ching itself as the stronger evidence, and that evidence points away from a single author writing at a single moment. The text is short - about five thousand Chinese characters - terse to the point of riddle, and shows signs of having been compiled and edited from shorter sayings and verses over a period of time, quite possibly extending into the 4th or 3rd century BC, well after the traditional date. Whether "Laozi" names one historical person, several people, or a legendary figure attached after the fact to an anonymous tradition remains an open question.

What the text itself argues is now called Daoism (Taoism): that there is an underlying way, or Tao, running through nature which cannot be fully captured in language, and that the wisest course for a person or a ruler is to act with restraint and non-contention (wu wei) rather than force events toward a desired outcome. Water, which yields to every obstacle yet wears down stone, is its recurring image for how softness can overcome hardness. Because the work's own history is unsettled, what can honestly be said is that these ideas come down under Laozi's name, not that any specific line was composed by one identifiable person.

Written by Epoch Voices. Not the figure’s own words.