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Who Was Lao Tzu? The Legend and Philosophy of Laozi

Published 3 min read

Lao Tzu is one of the most influential thinkers who may never have existed, at least not as the single person the legend describes. Here’s what tradition says, what historians think, and why it matters less than you might expect.

The name

Lao Tzu (老子, Laozi in modern spelling) is a title, not a name. It means “Old Master”. Lao is “old”, and tzu/zi is an honorific like “master”. Some legends play on the title and say he was born already old, with white hair.

The traditional story

The earliest biography comes from the great Han dynasty historian Sima Qian, who wrote his Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) around 100 BCE, several centuries after Lao Tzu was supposed to have lived. According to Sima Qian:

  • Lao Tzu’s family name was Li and his personal name Er; he was also called Lao Dan.
  • He came from the state of Chu and served as keeper of the archives at the royal court of Zhou.
  • Confucius visited him to ask about ritual. Afterwards Confucius told his students that he understood birds, fish and animals, but Lao Tzu was like a dragon riding the wind and clouds: impossible to grasp.
  • Seeing the Zhou state decline, Lao Tzu rode west on a water buffalo. At the frontier pass, the gatekeeper Yin Xi asked him to write down his wisdom before leaving the world. Lao Tzu wrote a book of “some five thousand characters” in two parts, on the Tao and on Te, and then rode off. No one knows where he went.

That book is the Tao Te Ching.

Even Sima Qian was unsure. He mentions other candidates who may have been “Lao Tzu”, and admits that no one knew the truth.

What historians think

Most modern scholars see the Tao Te Ching as a compilation: sayings and verses gathered, edited and arranged over a long period, probably reaching something like its present form around the 4th century BCE. Archaeology supports a gradual process:

  • Guodian (discovered 1993): bamboo slips from a tomb dated to around 300 BCE contain parts of the text, in different groupings and without some chapters.
  • Mawangdui (discovered 1973): two silk manuscripts from a tomb sealed in 168 BCE contain nearly the whole text, but with the two halves in the opposite order: the Te section first.

So there may have been a real teacher at the root of it all, but the book bearing his name is most likely the voice of a tradition rather than of one man on a buffalo.

Why it doesn’t matter as much as you’d think

The Tao Te Ching itself barely speaks of its author. There are no biographical details, no named students, no dates. It speaks in an anonymous “I” that seems more interested in disappearing than in being remembered. That fits its message:

The sage does not accumulate (for himself). The more that he expends for others, the more does he possess of his own.

Tao Te Ching, ch. 81 · tr. James Legge (1891)

Whoever wrote it, the book works the same way. It still reads freshly 2,000 years later.

Laozi’s philosophy in five ideas

  1. The Tao. Behind everything is a nameless source and pattern, “the Mother of all things” (What Is the Tao?).
  2. Wu wei. The best action is effortless and unforced, like nature’s (What Is Wu Wei?).
  3. Softness beats hardness. Water, the infant, the green shoot: what yields endures. “Man at his birth is supple and weak; at his death, firm and strong” (ch. 76).
  4. Simplicity and contentment. “He who is satisfied with his lot is rich” (ch. 33). Desire for more is the root of trouble.
  5. Return. All things go out and come back to their root. Stillness is not emptiness but home.

Lao Tzu and religion

In later centuries, religious Taoism honoured Lao Tzu as a deity, Laojun (“Lord Lao”), one of its highest gods. The philosopher who wanted to disappear became one of the most venerated figures in Chinese religion. We explain the philosophical and religious strands in Daoism vs Taoism.

Read him, not just about him

The best introduction to Lao Tzu is ten minutes with his book. Taoism: Doomscrolling Blocker contains all 81 chapters of the Tao Te Ching, in Chinese with two classic translations. You can read it anywhere, offline, a passage at a time. For a taste first, browse our 20 authentic Lao Tzu quotes.

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