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Lao Zi (also spelled Laozi) was a famous Chinese philosopher who is believed to have lived in approximately the 4th century BC, during the Hundred Schools of Thought and Warring States Periods. He is credited with writing the seminal Taoist work, the Dao De Jing. He became a popular deity in Taoist religion's pantheon. His most famous follower, Zhuang Zi, wrote a book that had one of the greatest influences on Chinese Literati, through the ideas of individualism, freedom, carefreeness, and, even if the author never speaks about it, art, which may well be the cornerstone of Chinese aestheticarts of the Far East 13th century BC spouted ritual wine vessel Guang . This vessel dates to the early Anyang period of the Shang dynasty ( 1300 1050 BC) Chinese art is art, whether modern or ancient, that originated in or is practiced in China or by Chin.

1 His life

Little is known about Lao Zi's life. His historical existence is strongly debated as is his authorship on the Dao De Jing. Regardless, he has become an important culture heroA culture hero is a historical or mythological hero who changes the world through invention or discovery. A typical culture hero might be credited as the discoverer of fire, or agriculture, songs, tradition and religion, and is usually the most important to subsequent generations of Chinese people. Tradition says he was born in Ku Prefecture (苦縣 Kǔ Xiàn) of the state of Chsmall seal script, 220 BC) Chu , originally known as Jing and then Jingchu , was an independent state that existed during China's Spring and Autumn period and, subsequently, the Warring States period. At the height of its power, the Chu empire occupied va (楚), which today is Lùyì County (鹿邑) of HenanHenan ( in pinyin: he nan, Wade-Giles: Ho-nan), is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the middle east of the country. Its pinyin spelling is written, though not officially, as He'nan to avoid syllable ambiguity. Its name Henan means province, in the later years of Spring and Autumn PeriodThe Spring and Autumn Period ( ch. pinyin Chunqiu Shidai) represented an era in Chinese history between 722 BC and 481 BC. The term comes from the Annals of Spring and Autumn a historical record penned by Confucius that chronicles this era. During the Spr. Some legends say he was born with white hair, having spent eight or eighty years in his mother's womb, which is given as an explanation for his title, which can be both read as "the old master" and "the old child".

According to the tradition, Lao Zi was an older contemporary of ConfuciusConfucius (traditionally 551 BC 479 BC) was a famous sage and social philosopher of China. His philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality, and gained popularity mostly due to its firm grounding in traditional Chinese attitudes. Confucius' in and worked as an archivist in the Imperial Library of the Zhou Dynasty court. Confucius intentionally or accidentally met him in Zhou, near the location of modern LuoyangLuoyang (, pinyin: luo yang) is a city in Henan province, China. Its GDP per capita was ¥13845 (ca. US$1670) in 2003, ranked no. 152 among 659 Chinese cities. History Located on the central plain of China, Luoyang is one of the seven ancient capitals of C, where Confucius was going to browse the library scrolls. According to these stories, Confucius, over the following months, discussed ritual and propriety, cornerstones of Confucianism, with Lao Zi. The latter strongly opposed what he felt to be hollow practices. Taoist legend claims that these discussions proved more educational for Confucius than the contents of the libraries.

Afterwards, Lao Zi resigned from his post, perhaps because the authority of Zhou's court was diminishing. Some accounts claim he travelled west on his water buffalo through the state of Qin and from there disappeared into the vast desert. These accounts have a guard at the western-most gate convincing Lao Zi to write down his wisdom before heading out into the desert. Until this time, Lao Zi had shared his philosophy in spoken words only, as was also the case with Socrates, Jesus, Buddha and Confucius (whose Analects were most likely compiled by disciples). Lao Zi's response to the soldier's request was the Dao De Jing.

Some of the modern controversies concerning Lao Zi's life include:

• The discussion requested by Confucius might have been fabricated by Taoists to make their school of philosophy sound superior to Confucianism.

• The actual author(s) of Dao De Jing might have created a fictitious character so the origin of the text would look more mysterious, thus making it easier to popularize.

• Arguments have been put forth that Lao Zi was a pseudonym of Dan, Prefect of the Grand Scribes (Tài Shǐ Dàn, 太史儋); or of an old man from Lai, a prefecture in the state of Qí (齊); or of some other historical person.