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Laozi (traditional)

c. 4th-3rd century BCE · The state of Chu (Hubei, China)

Laozi, the Old Master, is the traditional author of the Daodejing, the short book of eighty-one chapters that teaches rule by non-action and a world ordered by the Dao rather than by force. Tradition makes him an archivist of the Zhou court who, disgusted with its decline, rode west on an ox and wrote the book at the border pass at a gatekeeper's request. The text itself reads as the work of many hands across the fourth and third centuries.

Tagged: Daoism Philosophical Daoism

The Event

Date
c. 4th-3rd century BCE (traditional)
Also called
Lao Tzu, the Old Master
Era
The Early Masters; Standard periodization of Daoist history
Location
The state of Chu; today Hubei, China
Traditions
Daoism
Streams
Philosophical Daoism
Key figures
Laozi
Key texts
Daodejing

How the Tradition Tells It

The tradition receives Laozi as one man and the Daodejing as his book. Historical scholarship reads the text as a compilation gathered across the fourth and third centuries BCE, and the archivist who rode west may be a figure assembled around a name. The entry stands at traditional precision for that reason; the teaching the book carries is not in dispute.

Primary Sources

  • The Daodejing (Tao Te Ching) of Laozi.

Secondary Sources

  • Kirkland, Russell. Taoism: The Enduring Tradition. Routledge, 2004.
  • Robinet, Isabelle. Taoism: Growth of a Religion. Translated by Phyllis Brooks, Stanford University Press, 1997.

Provenance: HIST-0801; confidence 0.8; accessed 2026-10-28.

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