Laozi

Laozi, also romanized as Lao Tzu, was a legendary Chinese philosopher and sage traditionally credited with writing the Tao Te Ching, one of the foundational texts of Taoism. Traditional accounts identify him as Li Er, born in the 6th century BC in the state of Chu during China's Spring and Autumn period. He is said to have served as the royal archivist for the Zhou court, to have met Confucius, and to have composed the Dào Dé Jīng before withdrawing into the western wilderness. Modern scholarship, however, has questioned both Laozi’s historicity and the traditional attribution of the Dào Dé Jīng to a single author.