6th-century BC semi-legendary Chinese philosopher, founder of Taoism
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.
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 becam…
Sourced, dated quotes from Laozi
Those about whom you inquire have moulded with their bones into dust. Nothing but their words remain.
The Tao that can be expressed is not the eternal Tao; The name that can be defined is not the unchanging name.
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnameable is the eternally real.
The tao that can be described is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be spoken is not the eternal Name. The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth.
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