What was laozi known for

When Confucius returned to his disciples, he told them that he was overwhelmed by the commanding presence of Laozi, which was like that of a mighty dragon. The biography goes on to say that Laozi cultivated the dao and its de.

However, as the state of Zhou continued to decline, Laozi decided to leave China through the Western pass toward India and that upon his departure he gave to the keeper of the pass, one Yin Xi, a book divided into two parts, one on dao and one on de, and of 5, characters in length.

After that, no one knew what became of him. This is perhaps the most familiar of the traditions narrated by Sima Qian and it contains the core of most every subsequent biography or hagiography of Laozi of significance. However, the biography did not end here.

Sima Qian went on to record what other sources said about Laozi. In the first biography, Sima Qian says some report that Laolaizi came from Chu, was a contemporary of Confucius, and he authored a work in fifteen sections which speaks of the practical uses of the Daoist teachings.

But Sima Qian leaves it undecided whether he thinks Laolaizi should be identified with Laozi, even if he does include this reference in the section on Laozi. Sima Qian adds another layer to the biography without commenting on the degree of confidence he has in its truthfulness, according to which it is said that Laozi lived years or even years, as a result of cultivating the dao and nurturing his longevity.

An additional tradition included in the first biography is that Dan, the historiographer of Zhou predicted in B.

The point of this tradition is that Dan Lao Dan? But Sima Qian likewise refuses to identify Laozi with this Dan. Another movement in the evolution of the Laozi story was completed by about B. The association of Laozi with a text the DDJ that was becoming increasingly significant was important. The journey to the West component now also had a new force. It explained why Laozi was not presently advising the Han rulers.

He even tells us that when the Zhou kingdom began to decline, Laozi decided to leave China and head into the West. When he reached the mountain pass, the keeper of the pass Yin Xi insisted that he write down his teachings, so that the people would have them after he left.

No one knows where he ended his life. Since his biography located Laozi in a time period predating the Zhuangzi , and the passages in the Zhuangzi seemed to be about a person who lived in the time of Confucius and not to be simply a literary or traditional invention , then the inference was easy to make that Laozi was the founder of the Daoist school.

Laozi told him that he could come along, but only after he cultivated the dao. Laozi instructed Yin to study hard and await a summons which would be delivered to him in the marketplace in the city of Chengdu. It makes the first apotheosis of Laozi into a deity. Accordingly, during this period of the 2 nd and 3 rd centuries, the elite at the imperial court divinized Laozi and regarded him as an embodiment or incarnation of the dao , a kind of cosmic emperor who knew how to bring things into perfect harmony and peace by acting in wu-wei.

The Daoist cosmological belief in the powers of beings who experienced unity with the dao to effect transformation of their bodies and powers for example, Huzi in Zhuangzi, ch. It tells how Laozi transformed into his own mother and gave birth to himself, taking quite literally comments in the DDJ where the dao is portrayed as the mother of all things DDJ, ch. The work associates Laozi with various manifestations or incarnations of the dao itself.

In this text there is a complete apotheosis of Laozi into a numinal divinity. Alone and without relation, he has existed since before heaven and earth. Living deeply hidden, he always returns to be. The final passage in this work is an address given by Laozi predicting his reappearance and promising liberation from trouble and the overthrow of the Han dynasty, an allusion that helps us fix the probable date of origin for the work.

The millennial cults of the second century believed Laozi was a messianic figure who appeared to their leaders and gave them instructions and revelations for example, the hagiography of Zhang Daoling, founder of the Celestial Master Zhengyi movement contained in the 5th century work, Taiping Guangji 8.

The period of the Celestial Masters c. Laojun could manifest himself in any time of unrest and bring Great Peace taiping. Yet, the Celestial Masters never claimed that Laojun had done so in their day. Instead of such a direct manifestation, the Celestial Masters practitioners taught that Laojun transmitted to them talismans, registers, and new scriptures in the form of texts to guide the creation of communities of heavenly peace.

One work, very likely from the late 3 rd or early 4 th century C. According to the text, Laozi delivered these precepts after returning from India and finding the people in a state of corruption. As a result of these exchanges, scholarly consensus holds that Wang Fu compiled a one scroll work entitled Classic of the Conversion of the Barbarians Huahu jing, c. Perhaps the most inflammatory claim of this work was its teaching that when Laozi left China through the Western pass he went to India, where he transmorphed into the historical Buddha and converted the barbarians.

The basic implication of the book was that Buddhism was actually only a form of Daoism. This work inflamed Buddhists for decades. In fact, both of the Tang Emperors Gaozong C. However, as bitter contention continued between Buddhism and Daoism, the Daoists actually expanded the Classic of the Conversion of the Barbarians , so that by C. Nothing in the world is softer or weaker than water, and yet for attacking things that are firm and hard, nothing is so effectual. Everyone knows that the soft overcomes the hard, and gentleness conquers the strong, but few can carry it out in practice.

As one of the most translated and prolific works in history, the Tao Te Ching had a strong and dramatic influence on Chinese culture and society.

During Imperial China, Taoism took on strong religious aspects, and the Tao Te Ching became the doctrine by which individuals shaped their worship practices.

Though the dates of his birth and death are unknown, Laozi is believed to have been a contemporary of Confucius. By some accounts, the two historic figures were actually the same person. According to Sima Qian, the two figures either met or were discussed in conjunction with one another several times.

Once, Confucius went to Laozi to ask about rites and rituals. He returned home and remained silent for three days before proclaiming to his students that Laozi was a dragon, flying amongst the clouds. On another occasion, Laozi declared that Confucius was confined and limited by his pride and ambition.

According to Laozi, Confucius did not understand that life and death were equal. Both Confucianism and Taoism became pillars of Chinese culture and religion, although in different ways. Confucianism, with its rites, rituals, ceremonies, and prescribed hierarchies, became the outline or physical construction of Chinese society.

By contrast, Taoism emphasized the spirituality, harmony, and duality present in nature and existence, especially as it grew to encompass more religious aspects during the Imperial Era.

Both Confucianism and Taoism maintain influence over Chinese culture as well as many societies across the Asian continent. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Take a look at the similar writing assignments Essay What is Laozi known for? Get a writing assignment done or a free consulting with qualified academic writer. Read also How do you find the utility function in game theory?

What are the main features of colonialism? What are the main premises of Marx's dialectical thought? What is rational voting? Who is the father of Christian theology? What are the negative effects of terrorism? In an article in English, Liu sets out some of his main findings. Commentaries to the Laozi offer an invaluable guide to interpretation and are important also for their own contributions to Chinese philosophy and religion.

Two chapters in the current Hanfeizi chs. Queen Nevertheless, Laozi learning began to flourish from the Han period. Some mention will also be made of later developments in the history of the Daodejing.

The late Isabelle Robinet has contributed an important pioneering study of the early Laozi commentaries ; see also Robinet Traditionally, the Heshanggong commentary is regarded as a product of the early Han dynasty.

The name Heshanggong means an old man who dwells by the side of a river, and some have identified the river in question to be the Yellow River. An expert on the Laozi , he caught the attention of Emperor Wen, who went personally to consult him. Chan Recent Chinese studies generally place the commentary at the end of the Han period, although some Japanese scholars would date it to as late as the sixth century C.

It is probably a second-century C. Chan a. A careful diet, exercise, and some form of meditation are implied, but generally the commentary focuses on the diminishing of selfish desires. In this way, self-cultivation and government are shown to form an integral whole. Yan Zun is well remembered in traditional sources as a recluse of great learning and integrity, a diviner of legendary ability, and an author of exceptional talent. The famous Han poet and philosopher Yang Xiong 53 B.

The Laozi zhigui abbreviated hereafter as Zhigui , as it now stands, is incomplete; only the commentary to the Dejing , chapters 38—81 of the current Laozi , remains. The best edition of the Zhigui is that contained in the Daozang Daoist Canon, no. Judging from the available evidence, it can be accepted as a Han product A. Like Heshanggong, Yan Zun also subscribes to the yin-yang cosmological theory characteristic of Han thought. It describes the nature of the Dao and its manifestation in the world.

It also points to an ethical ideal. The way in which natural phenomena operate reflects the workings of the Dao. In this way, the Laozi is seen to offer a comprehensive guide to order and harmony at all levels.

Although it is mentioned in catalogues of Daoist works, there was no real knowledge of it until a copy was discovered among the Dunhuang manuscripts S. The manuscript copy, now housed in the British Library, was probably made around C. The original text, disagreement among scholars notwithstanding, is generally traced to around C.

A detailed study and translation of the work in English is now available Bokenkamp This underscores the central thesis of the commentary, that devotion to the Dao in terms of self-cultivation and compliance with its precepts would assure boundless blessing in this life and beyond. Spiritual discipline, however, is insufficient; equally important is the accumulation of moral merit.

These include general positive steps such as being tranquil and yielding, as well as specific injunctions against envy, killing, and other morally reprehensible acts. The word xuan denotes literally a shade of dark red and is used in the Laozi esp.

Alarmed by what they saw as the decline of Dao, influential intellectuals of the day initiated a sweeping reinterpretation of the classical heritage.

Wang Bi, despite his short life, distinguished himself as a brilliant interpreter of the Laozi and the Yijing see A. Rather, Wang seems more concerned with what may be called the logic of creation. The ground of being, however, cannot be itself a being; otherwise, infinite regress would render the logic of the Laozi suspect.

We will come back to this point later. The transcendence of Dao must not be compromised. Nonaction helps explain the practical meaning of naturalness. In ethical terms, Wang Bi takes nonaction to mean freedom from the dictates of desire. This defines not only the goal of self-cultivation but also that of government. The concepts of naturalness and nonaction will be discussed further below. The authority of the Heshanggong commentary can be traced to its place in the Daoist religion, where it ranks second only to the Daodejing itself.

From the Tang period, one begins to find serious attempts to collect and classify the growing number of Laozi commentaries. An early pioneer is the eighth-century Daoist master Zhang Junxiang, who cited some thirty commentaries in his study of the Daodejing Wang Du Guangting — provided a larger collection, involving some sixty commentaries Daode zhenjing guangshengyi , Daozang no.

According to Du, there were those who saw the Laozi as a political text, while others focused on spiritual self-cultivation. There were Buddhist interpreters e. This latter represents an important development in the history of interpretation of the Daodejing Assandri Daoist sources relate that the school goes back to the fourth-century master Sun Deng.

Through Gu Huan fifth century and others, the school reached its height during the Tang period, represented by such thinkers as Cheng Xuanying and Li Rong in the seventh century. The Laozi has been viewed in still other ways. The diversity of interpretation is truly remarkable see Robinet for a typological analysis.

The Daodejing was given considerable imperial attention, with no fewer than eight emperors having composed or at least commissioned a commentary on the work. By the thirteenth century, students of the Daodejing were already blessed, as it were, with an embarrassment of riches, so much so that Du Daojian — could not but observe that the coming of the Dao to the world takes on a different form each time. Is the Laozi a manual of self-cultivation and government? Is it a metaphysical treatise, or does it harbor deep mystical insights?

The Laozi is a difficult text. Its language is often cryptic; the sense or reference of the many symbols it employs remains unclear, and there seems to be conceptual inconsistencies.

Traditionally, however, this was never a serious option. Consider, first of all, some of the main modern approaches to the Daodejing cf. Hardy One view is that the Laozi reflects a deep mythological consciousness at its core. Chapter 25, for example, likens the Dao to an undifferentiated oneness.

The myth of a great mother earth goddess may also have informed the worldview of the Laozi Erkes ; Chen , which explains its emphasis on nature and the feminine Chen A second view is that the Laozi gives voice to a profound mysticism. According to Victor Mair , it is indebted to Indian mysticism see also Waley According to Benjamin Schwartz , the mysticism of the Daodejing is sui generis , uniquely Chinese and has nothing to do with India. Indeed, as one scholar suggests, it is unlike other mystical writings in that ecstatic vision does not play a role in the ascent of the Daoist sage Welch , It is possible to combine the mystical and mythological approaches.

Broadly, one could carve out a third category of interpretations that highlights the religious significance of the Laozi , whether in general terms or aligned with the tenets of religious Daoism. A fourth view sees the Laozi mainly as a work of philosophy, which gives a metaphysical account of reality and insight into Daoist self-cultivation and government; but fundamentally it is not a work of mysticism W.

The strong practical interest of the Laozi distinguishes it from any mystical doctrine that eschews worldly involvement. Fifth, to many readers the Laozi offers essentially a philosophy of life. Remnants of an older religious thinking may have found their way into the text, but they have been transformed into a naturalistic philosophy.

The emphasis on naturalness translates into a way of life characterized by simplicity, calmness, and freedom from the tyranny of desire e. Sixth, the Laozi is above all concerned with realizing peace and sociopolitical order. It is an ethical and political masterpiece intended for the ruling class, with concrete strategic suggestions aimed at remedying the moral and political turmoil engulfing late Zhou China.

Self-cultivation is important, but the ultimate goal extends beyond personal fulfillment Lau , LaFargue , Moeller The Laozi criticizes the Confucian school not only for being ineffectual in restoring order but more damagingly as a culprit in worsening the ills of society at that time.

This list is far from exhaustive; there are other views of the Laozi. Different combinations are also possible. Graham, for example, emphasizes both the mystical and political elements, arguing that the Laozi was probably targeted at the ruler of a small state , The Laozi could be seen as encompassing all of the above—such categories as the metaphysical, ethical, political, mystical, and religious form a unified whole in Daoist thinking and are deemed separate and distinct only in modern Western thought.

This concerns not only the difficulty of the Laozi but also the interplay between reader and text in any act of interpretation. But, it is important to emphasize, it does not follow that context is unimportant, that parameters do not exist, or that there are no checks against particular interpretations.

While hermeneutic reconstruction remains an open process, it cannot disregard the rules of evidence. Questions of provenance, textual variants, as well as the entire tradition of commentaries and modern scholarship are important for this reason. And it is for this same reason that the present article leaves the discussion of the Laozi itself till the end.

The following presents some of the main concepts and symbols in the Laozi based on the current text, focusing on the key conceptual cluster of Dao, de virtue , ziran naturalness , and wuwei nonaction. I propose that the two readings represented by the Heshanggong and Wang Bi commentaries both bring out important insight from the Laozi.

To begin with Dao, the etymology of the Chinese graph or character suggests a pathway, or heading in a certain direction along a path. This is also how most commentators in traditional China have understood it: the many normative discourses that clamor to represent the right way are seen to be fickle, partial and misleading. The concept of dao is not unique to the Laozi. A key term in the philosophical vocabulary, it informs early Chinese philosophy as a whole.

It is interpreted differently, signifying a means to a higher end in some writings and as an end in itself in others. The Laozi underscores both the ineffability and creative power of Dao. This is distinctive and if one accepts the early provenance of the text, charts a new course in the development of Chinese philosophy.

This suggests a sense of radical transcendence, which explains why the Laozi has been approached so often as a mystical text. Names serve to delimit, to set boundaries; in contrast, Dao is without limits and therefore cannot be captured fully by language. What does this mean? This is essentially the reading of the Heshanggong commentary.

That which gave rise to the original qi -energy, however, is indescribable. Alternatively, one could argue that Dao signifies a conceptually necessary ontological ground; it does not refer to any indescribable original substance or energy.

As the source of being, Dao cannot be itself a being, no matter how powerful or perfect; otherwise, the problem of infinite regress cannot be overcome. For the latter, Dao is entirely conceptual, whereas the former envisages the Dao as referring to a mysterious substance or energy that brings about the cosmos and continues to sustain and regulate it.

The latter may be awkward, but it serves to alert the reader that the nothingness or emptiness of Dao may not be understood referentially or reduced simply to the fullness of qi. In light of the interest in cosmology during the Warring States period, the cosmological reading may be privileged, but the Laozi is also open to an ontological interpretation.

Both are philosophically potent. At one level, the ontological reading may accommodate the qi -based yin-yang cosmology, although there is significant divergence in the interpretation of the ethics of the Laozi , as we shall see in the next section. It also suggests a direction to be followed, which brings out the ethical interest of the Laozi.

The Daodejing is concerned with both Dao and de. Like Dao, de is a general concept open to diverse interpretation. The Confucian understanding of de is by no means uniform A. Confucius may have emphasized the latter, but there is ample evidence in the Analects and other Confucian works testifying to the importance of the former as well.

The different translations mentioned above aim at bringing out the perceived uniquely Daoist understanding of de. From this perspective, both Laozi and Confucius are interpreters of de -virtue. The marriage of Dao and de effectively bridges the gap between transcendence and immanence.

In this sense, the Laozi speaks of de as that which nourishes all beings e. Within these parameters, interpretations of de follow from the understanding of Dao and wu. In either case, the concept of de emerges as a Daoist response to the question of human nature, which was one of the most contested issues in early Chinese philosophy.

The two readings of the Laozi , despite their differences, agree that it is an inherent de that enables a person to conform to the way in which Dao operates. In a cosmological reading, this suggests an understanding of nature as governed by the operation of qi energies in an ideal yin-yang system characterized by harmony and fecundity. Nature in the Daoist sense, it is important to note, need not exclude the spiritual and the social. The existence of gods and spirits, which can be understood also as being constituted by qi energies, was hardly questioned in early China.

The Laozi makes clear that they, too, stem from Dao and form a part of the order of ziran e. Further, nature encompasses not only natural phenomena but also sociopolitical institutions. The king clearly occupies a central place in the realm of Dao chs.

As an ethical concept, ziran thus extends beyond the personal to the sociopolitical level. Wuwei does not mean total inaction.