Whether or not Lao-Tzu, the legendary founder of Taoism, was an actual person is the subject of continuing debate among historians. According to legend, the great sage lived in China in about the sixth century BC and wrote the Tao Te Ching, a towering, far-ranging treatise on free will, human nature, and ethics that formed the basis of one of Asia’s major religious traditions.
Virtually nothing is known about Lao-Tzu’s life—if indeed he existed—and this void has been filled with any number of improbable legends. According to one, he already had a full beard when he emerged from his mother’s womb, a sign of his great wisdom. Another myth says he lived for 996 years. At some point, he is believed to have worked as an archivist for a Chinese emperor in the present-day city of Luoyang, where he penned his first philosophical writings.
The Tao-te Ching—written, according to another legend, in a single night—is an eighty-one-chapter guide to philosophy and ethics that describes the nature of the universe (Tao, meaning “path”) and the importance of personal morals (te, meaning “virtue”). Lao-Tzu’s moral code stressed the value of reflection, nonviolence, and passive acceptance of nature. “Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are,” one passage reads. “When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”
One of the best-known concepts of Taoism is the idea of duality. According to Lao-Tzu, nature is full of polar opposites—feminine and masculine, light and dark, life and death—that often seem to be in direct conflict with each other. Lao-Tzu taught that by understanding the hidden links between such pairs, it is possible to achieve a deeper understanding of the universe. Indeed, in many cases one could not exist without the other. The concept is famously symbolized by the yin (“earth”) and yang (“heaven”) symbol; while the two seem opposites, in fact there can be no heaven without earth and no earth without heaven.
According to tradition, as an old man Lao-Tzu lived as a hermit and died in obscurity. His writings, however, were widely embraced, and copies of the Tao Te Ching have been unearthed in ancient Chinese tombs. Taoism remains one of the major religious forces in contemporary China.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- In modern-day China, Taoism is one of the five “official” religions permitted by the ruling Communist Party, along with Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, and Protestantism.
- The Tao-te Ching was relatively unique among ancient religious texts for its equality between men and women: Lao-Tzu used the feminine she to refer to the most important qualities of existence, such as life and creativity, in order to challenge the otherwise patriarchal focus on men.
- Chapter Forty-Seven of the Tao-te Ching provided the lyrics to the 1968 Beatles song “The Inner Light,” with music arranged by guitarist George Harrison (1943–2001).
