Lǎo Zǐ (老子) — Great Ancient Chinese Philosopher

Lǎo Zǐ lived in Chǔguó (楚国 now Anhui Province) in the Srping and Autumn Period (between 570 BC - 480 BC). His actual name was Lǐ Er (李耳), his courtesy name Bó Yáng (伯阳) and posthumous name Dān (聃).

According to Chinese ancient custom, those noble academic people would be called respectfully with the character “zǐ” which means “mister or teacher”, such as Confucius (Kǒng Zǐ 孔子), Mèng Zǐ (孟子) etc. Lǎo Zǐ was also called in this way but his surname was not Lǎo, then why he was called Lǎo Zǐ not Lǐ Zǐ?

Here there was an interesting legend about him with very strong religion color. It was said that Lǎo Zǐ ’s mother had her pregnancy for 81 years and he was born with a very old face. So he was called Lǎo Zǐ (Lao means old).

Because Lǎo Zǐ was such a mysterious figure no one knows exactly his birth and death date. We can only learn about his brief introduction from Shǐjì (史记 — Historical Records) written by Sīmǎ Qiān 司马迁, famous historian in the Han Dynasty about 2000 years ago that Lǎo Zǐ was an official of the Zhōu Dynasty taking charge of the administration of history books and records. Lǎo Zǐ left nothing about himself except his masterpiece “Dào Dé Jīng 道德经”, which made him famous as the founder of 道家 (Daoism or Taoism as people of the world know), and many legends about him.

It is said that Lǎo Zǐ left the chaotic royal families of Zhōu Dynasty. Riding on his green bull toward his west journey, Lǎo Zǐ was invited by the governor of Hángǔ Guān (函谷关）to write down his masterpiece. He left a book with 5000 words then disappeared. That was the famous 道德经.

The main idea of Lǎo Zǐ ’s philosophy is “Dào” (道) which means “the way” or “the rule”. He regarded ways and rules as resources creating everything. They were invisible and traceless that people could only sense but were not able to get hold of them. He thought people must follow rules of the world. While the soul of his theory was his simple dialectic opinion claiming that every conflict had two aspects which could be transferred toward its opposite direction under certain conditions. His famous saying “祸兮福所倚，福兮祸所伏 huò xī fú suǒ yǐ, fú xī huò suǒfú” (Good fortune lies within bad; bad fortune lurks within good.) typically indicated this opinion. He observed and analyzed carefully the changes and developments between nature and human beings. He then brought forward his famous philosophic theory which was full of intelligence and foreknowledge.

It is said that as his contemporaries, Confucius went to visit Lǎo Zǐ and asked for advice about courtesy. Returning from his visiting, Confucius told his students and followers: “We know birds can fly; fish can swim; beasts can run. We can use net to catch beasts, using strings to fish and using arrow to shot the flying birds. But we don’t know the dragon which can ride wind and clouds into the heaven. Lǎo Zǐ is the dragon.” Confucius respected and praised highly about Lǎo Zǐ for his intelligence and brightness.

Lǎo Zǐ had been regarded as the founder of 道家 (Daoism) and his theory has influenced not only Chinese people but also people of the world because his ideas are really profound and lasting that it is even still important for our modern life. His book of 道德经 was translated into many foreign languages, with its quantities just less than the translation versions of Bible, which indicates his great influence to the world.