Laozi

Laozi, also spelled Lao Tzu or Laotse, is one of the most important figures in Chinese thought and a central figure in Taoism. He is traditionally credited with the Dao De Jing, a short and enigmatic book that has shaped Chinese philosophy, religion, literature and political thought for more than two thousand years. Whether he really existed remains uncertain. Tradition places him in the 6th century BC, but many modern scholars date him later, to the age of the Hundred Schools of Thought and the Warring States.

Very little is known about his life. The name Laozi is an honorific title, close in meaning to 'old master' or 'venerable teacher', rather than a personal name. Traditional accounts give him the personal name Li Er and the alternative name Lao Dan. He is said to have been born in the state of Chu, in a village in what is now Henan province, and to have worked as an archivist at the court of the Zhou dynasty. Sima Qian, the great historian of the 1st century BC, recorded several versions of his biography and openly doubted them. In some, Laozi is an elder contemporary of Confucius, with whom he is said to have argued for months about ritual, the foundation of Confucianism. Laozi opposed what he saw as empty practices, and a Taoist legend claims that these debates benefited Confucius more than the contents of the library.

According to tradition, late in life he resigned his post, perhaps because the authority of the Zhou court was waning, and rode west on a water buffalo. At the Shanggu pass, a guardian asked him to write down his teachings before he continued. The Dao De Jing is said to have come from that request. Until then he had taught only by word of mouth. After that, his trace is lost. Later versions contradict one another, and it is likely that the book grew out of a body of sayings passed down and expanded by many hands.

The core of his thought is the dao, usually translated as 'the way'. For Laozi, the dao is the nameless, inherent order of the universe, a constant change that no one can fully fix. Against this background he proposes wei-wu-wei, action through non-action. This does not mean doing nothing. It means avoiding the forced will and explicit intentions that obstruct the harmonious course of nature. Goals are best reached by working with the way things grow and decline, so that what accords with the dao proves easier and more productive than what tries to oppose it. In politics he distrusts an excess of laws and rules, which he believed oppress people's freedom, and he regarded violence as something to be avoided. Even military victory seemed to him a cause for mourning.

His style is poetic, dense and full of paradox. Like other ancient Chinese thinkers, he uses analogies, quotations from earlier sources, repetition, symmetry and rhythm. His influence was enormous. Over time, religious Taoism placed him among its principal deities, and the Tang dynasty claimed him as an ancestor. He remains a key figure for understanding Chinese thought and one of the most quoted voices in Eastern philosophy.