Laozi

Agora

Laozi

legendary figure

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

The text attributed to him teaches that the deepest way of things cannot be put into words, and that the wise act by not forcing anything.

Placement

East Asian Philosophy · East Asia · Metaphysics, Ethics, Politics & Law

Legendary figure to whom the Daodejing (compiled c. 4th–3rd century BCE) is attributed: the Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao. Acting through non-action.

Key ideas

Dao
Wu wei
De

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Influence

Influenced 10

Zhuangzi

influenced disputed ✓
Whether the Laozi predates the Zhuangzi is disputed; the Zhuangzi tells stories of Lao Dan, including his funeral in the Inner Chapters, and praises him in ‘Tianxia’. Zhuangzi, “Yangsheng zhu”, “Tianxia”; SEP “Zhuangzi”; SEP “Laozi”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Zhuangzi › c. 369–286 BCE
Leo Tolstoy

influenced
Tolstoy read Laozi from the 1880s and in 1910 published a selection of his sayings with his own essay “On the Essence of Laozi’s Teaching”. L. Tolstoy (ed.), Izrecheniya kitaiskogo mudretsa Lao-Tze (Posrednik, 1910); D. Bodde, Tolstoy and China (1950)
Evidence: AI draft
Leo Tolstoy › 1828–1910
Bertrand Russell

influenced
In The Problem of China (1922) Russell took Laozi’s “production without possession, action without self-assertion, development without domination” as the Chinese conception of the ends of life, set against Western possession, self-assertion and domination. B. Russell, The Problem of China (1922), ch. XI “Chinese and Western Civilization Contrasted”
Evidence: AI draft
Bertrand Russell › 1872–1970
C. G. Jung

influenced
In Psychological Types (1921) Jung read the Tao of the Daodejing as the “uniting symbol” of Chinese philosophy – a middle way between the opposites that cannot be reached by willing (wu wei). C. G. Jung, Psychologische Typen (1921), ch. V, “The Uniting Symbol in Chinese Philosophy” (Collected Works 6)
Evidence: AI draft
C. G. Jung › 1875–1961
Karl Jaspers

influenced
In The Great Philosophers (1957) Jaspers treated Laozi, with Heraclitus, Parmenides, Plotinus, Spinoza and Nagarjuna, among the metaphysicians whose thinking springs from the origin. K. Jaspers, Die großen Philosophen I (1957), “Aus dem Ursprung denkende Metaphysiker”
Evidence: AI draft
Karl Jaspers › 1883–1969
Martin Heidegger

influenced disputed
Heidegger tried translating the Daodejing with Paul Shih-yi Hsiao (1946) and linked Tao with ‘way’ (Unterwegs zur Sprache, 1959); how far Daoism shaped him is disputed. P. Shih-yi Hsiao, “Wir trafen uns am Holzmarktplatz”, in G. Neske (ed.), Erinnerung an Martin Heidegger (1977); M. Heidegger, Unterwegs zur Sprache (1959); R. May, Ex oriente lux. Heideggers Werk unter ostasiatischem Einfluß (1989); SEP “Laozi”
Evidence: AI draft
Martin Heidegger › 1889–1976

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Han Feizi

influenced
Two chapters of the Han Feizi, ‘Explaining Laozi’ and ‘Illustrating Laozi’, read the Laozi’s Way and non-action as the ruler’s art of impersonal control; their authorship is debated. Han Feizi, “Jie Lao”, “Yu Lao”; SEP “Legalism in Chinese Philosophy”
Evidence: AI draft
Han Feizi › c. 280–233 BCE
Wang Chong

influenced
In ‘Spontaneity’ (Ziran) Wang Chong held, departing from the Confucians and agreeing with the Huang-Lao teaching, that Heaven acts without intention (Lunheng). Wang Chong, Lunheng, “Ziran”, tr. A. Forke, Lun-hêng (1907–11); IEP “Wang Chong”
Evidence: AI draft
Wang Chong › c. 27–100
Wang Bi

influenced
Wang Bi’s commentary on the Laozi and his Outline of its Subtle Points read the Way as non-being (wu), the root from which all beings arise. Wang Bi, Laozi zhu; Laozi weizhi lilüe; R. G. Wagner, A Chinese Reading of the Daodejing (2003); SEP “Wang Bi”
Evidence: AI draft
Wang Bi › 226–249
Zhou Dunyi

influenced
Zhou Dunyi’s Explanation of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate opens with ‘non-ultimate’ (wuji), a term from the Laozi, which is why Lu Jiuyuan doubted its Confucian credentials. Zhou Dunyi, Taijitu shuo; W.-t. Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (1963)
Evidence: AI draft
Zhou Dunyi › 1017–1073

Criticism

Criticized by 2

Han Yu

criticised by
Han Yu’s ‘Essentials of the Way’ (Yuan Dao) accused Laozi of belittling benevolence and righteousness and so emptying ‘the Way’ of its Confucian content. Han Yu, Yuan Dao; C. Hartman, Han Yü and the T’ang Search for Unity, 1986
Evidence: AI draft
Han Yu › 768–824
Immanuel Kant

criticised by
In “The End of All Things” (1794) Kant named “the monstrous system of Lao-kiun”, whose highest good is said to consist in nothingness, as an example of a mysticism in which the person dissolves into the deity. Kant, Das Ende aller Dinge (1794), AA 8:335
Evidence: AI draft
Immanuel Kant › 1724–1804

Works

c. 400 BCEDaodejing
81 short chapters, attributed to Laozi and compiled over generations (earliest manuscripts c. 300 BCE): the unnameable Dao and non-interference.

Position

The Daodejing opens: “The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao.” The Dao is the nameless source and course of all things, which acts without striving and yet leaves nothing undone. Humans should follow it through wu wei, effortless non-action: not forcing, not grasping, letting things take their own course. Softness overcomes hardness, as water wears away stone; emptiness is useful, like the hollow of a vessel. The ideal ruler governs so lightly that the people say it all happened by itself. Together with Zhuangzi, Laozi became the founding figure of Daoism and one of the most translated authors in the world.

Life & context

Laozi, “the Old Master”, is traditionally regarded as an older contemporary of Confucius and an archivist at the Zhou court who, according to legend, wrote down the Daodejing at the request of a border guard before departing for the west. Modern scholarship doubts that he was a single historical person; the text probably took shape over the fourth century BCE.