# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/laozi
# Generated: 2026-09-01T12:43:18.124Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/laozi"
name: "Laozi"
slug: "laozi"
description: "A philosopher who may never have existed, yet whose name anchors one of the world's enduring thought systems. The Tao Te Ching carries his signature, but scholarship now sees a composite text and a legend where tradition placed a sage who walked away from the Zhou court into the western wilderness."
tagline: "6th-century BC semi-legendary Chinese philosopher, founder of Taoism"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Zhang_Lu-Laozi_Riding_an_Ox_(cropped).jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
category:
  name: "Academics"
  slug: "academics"
profileType:
  name: "Academic"
  slug: "academic"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "-579"
deathDate: "-500"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           84.74
  momentum:             0
  historical:           26.592756
  currentAttention:     8
  sourceConfidence:     65
  profileCompleteness:  65
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: 23
tags:
  - name: "Academics"
    slug: "academics"
  - name: "Academic"
    slug: "academic"
  - name: "Philosophy"
    slug: "philosophy"
  - name: "Literature"
    slug: "literature"
  - name: "Ancient History"
    slug: "ancient-history"
platforms:
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1323397/"
    handle:    "nm1323397"
sources:
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laozi"
    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9333"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Laozi"
    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://am.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%88%8B%E1%8B%8D_%E1%8B%B5%E1%8B%99"
    title: "ላው ድዙ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://anp.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%93-%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%82"
    title: "लाओ-त्सू"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://an.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lao_Tse"
    title: "Lao Tse"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%AA%D8%B2%D9%87"
    title: "لاوتزه"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ary.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%AA%D8%B3%D9%88"
    title: "لاوتسو"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%88%D8%AA%D8%B2%D9%87"
    title: "لاوتزه"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ast.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laozi"
    title: "Laozi"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://as.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%89%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BF"
    title: "লাউযি"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://awa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%93_%E0%A4%9C%E0%A5%82"
    title: "लाओ जू"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ay.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lao_Tzu"
    title: "Lao Tzu"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://azb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%88_%D8%B2%DB%8C"
    title: "لائو زی"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lao-tsz%C4%B1"
    title: "Lao-tszı"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ba.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%B0%D0%BE-%D1%86%D0%B7%D1%8B"
    title: "Лао-цзы"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bcl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laozi"
    title: "Laozi"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be_x_old.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%B0%D0%BE-%D0%A6%D0%B7%D1%8B"
    title: "Лао-Цзы"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%B0%D0%B0-%D0%A6%D0%B7%D1%8B"
    title: "Лаа-Цзы"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%B0%D0%BE_%D0%94%D0%B7%D1%8A"
    title: "Лао Дзъ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laozi"
    title: "Laozi"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%93%E0%A7%8E%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%BF"
    title: "লাওৎসি"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bo.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%BD%A3%E0%BD%BC%E0%BD%A0%E0%BD%BC%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%99%E0%BD%BA%E0%BC%8D"
    title: "ལོའོ་ཙེ།"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lao_Zi"
    title: "Lao Zi"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lao_Tse"
    title: "Lao Tse"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ar.wikiquote.org/wiki/%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%88_%D8%AA%D8%B2%D9%88"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://az.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lao-tsz%C4%B1"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://bg.wikiquote.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D0%B0%D0%BE_%D0%94%D0%B7%D1%8A"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://bn.wikiquote.org/wiki/%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%93%E0%A7%8E%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%BF"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://bs.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lao_Tse"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Traditional accounts call him Li Er, born in the 6th century BC in the state of Chu during the Spring and Autumn period, and say he served as royal archivist for the Zhou court before meeting Confucius and vanishing westward. He's credited with writing the Tao Te Ching before that departure, and became the central figure of Taoism — venerated in its religious form as Taishang Laojun, one of the Three Pure Ones, and claimed as ancestor by the Li clans, including the Tang dynasty's ruling family. The text attributed to him, advocating harmony with nature and wu wei, influenced Zhuangzi and became a pillar of Chinese philosophy. Modern scholarship dates the received Tao Te Ching to the Warring States period and reads it as a composite work, leaving the historical Laozi uncertain and the legend intact.