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Who is Lao Tzu?
The ancient Chinese book of thought “Laozi” was written by a man named Laozi, but his career is shrouded in mystery, so much so that there are theories that question whether this man ever existed.
The oldest reliable source of information on Laozi’s character is the “Biography of Laozi” in the “Historiography” written by Shiba Qian, a historian of the Former Han period (710-794). The “Biography of Laozi” lists three candidates for the title “Laozi”: Lao Tang, Lao Lisi, and Taishi Biao. This shows that Laozi was already considered an unfamiliar figure.
Of the three Lao Tzu, Lao Yan is the one most fully described. Laonan was a native of Chuxi (楚), whose family name was Li (李), whose first name was Ji (耳), and whose last name was Tan (or Hakuyo). His family name was Li, his first name was Ji, and his last name was Huyang. The name “Laonan” means “long ears,” and when combined with the name “Mimi,” it is possible to imagine that he was a man with long ears. He worked as a clerk in the Zhou Dynasty’s archives, or what we would now call the National Archives of China.
Lao Chen lived in the fifth century B.C., at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period and the beginning of the Warring States Period. This was a time when the authority of the Zhou Dynasty had almost completely disappeared, the feudal order had collapsed, and a warring world of rival kingdoms had begun.
Sensing that the power of the Zhou Dynasty was waning, Lao Tzu abandoned his job as a government official and set out on a journey westward on the back of an ox from Luoyang, the capital of the Zhou Dynasty. When he arrived at a certain barrier on his journey, he was asked by Yinki, the chief of the government, to speak about “the Way.” There, Lao Tzu wrote a book of about 5,000 words in two parts, the upper and the lower parts. This is the prototype of “Lao Tzu,” which has been handed down to the present day.
The most popular theory today is that Lao Tzu = Lao Cheng, because the structure of the book, with its 5,000-odd characters, is exactly the same as the “Lao Tzu” that we know today. The “Biography of Lao Tsu” says that Lao Tsu continued his journey westward, and we do not know where he died at the end of his life.
The two candidates of the earth, Lao Qizhi and Taishi Biao, also have something in common with Lao Zi, but it is not known who among the three candidates of Lao Zi was the real laborer.
However, Sima Qian says that Laozi is a “hidden monarch. Lao Tzu is a man of virtue who avoided the world and did not take part in politics. From such a standpoint, there existed one or several persons who observed and criticized various things in the world, and it is thought that they eventually developed into the figure of “Lao Tzu”. Although there are some contradictory ideas in “Lao Tzu,” it is a fact that there existed a person who wrote the book “Lao Tzu,” regardless of the number of people who wrote it.
From NHK 100 Minutes de Meitaku Laozi x Sun Tzu. In this article, I will give an overview of Lao Tzu.
Lao Tzu and Sun Tzu: "Live Like Water", NHK's 100 Minutes de Meitaku
Introduction
Invitation to the "Lao-Sun" Philosophy
Chapter 1 Basic Philosophy
Lao Tzu: Live according to the "Way
Is Lao Tzu a real person?
A New Discovery in the 20th Century
What is the "Way" at the root of Lao Tzu's thought?
Both "existence" and "nothingness" are activities of "the Way.
From nothingness, something is born, and from nothingness, all things are born
The concept of "infinity
Lao Tzu's philosophy was born out of criticism of Confucianism
Sun Tzu: Winning without fighting
Philosophy brought about by changes in war
A bestseller in the family
New Discoveries through the Unearthing of Bamboo Briefs
What is War?
Point your forces before you fight
Win by preserving both your army and the enemy's
Preparation is the key to victory
How was the idea of winning without fighting put to use?
Fictitious dialogue Lao Tzu x Sun Tzu (1) Lao Tzu's "The Way", Sun Tzu's "The Way"
Three contemporaries
▼What is "The Way"?
▼ Laozi's Art of War
Chapter 2 Philosophy for Living
Lao Tzu: The "Upper Goodness" is like Water
The concept of "no action, no nature
Heaven and earth cannot be subdued by making things happen
Learning from "water" how to be soft and gentle
The truth of paradox
The strong do not fight
Lao Tzu's "Win without fighting
Sun Tzu's "Water is the ideal
Insight into human nature
How a person should be
Dealing with people according to their ability and making flexible judgments
Qi and momentum - the fundamental substance and energy of the group
The form of an army, the form of water
Fictitious dialogue Laozi x Sun Tzu ② "Water" makes one a philosopher
Ideology of "water" as an ideal
▼The strength of water, which is soft and weak
▼ Water stirs the imagination of thinkers
Chapter 3 How to relate to others
Lao Tzu It is better to go down
Avoid failure rather than hoping for success
Don't be assertive, earn people's respect
Use humble and mild diplomacy, not all-out confrontation
Tactics of taunting the opponent
Respect the autonomy of the people, not the monarch
The ideal society envisioned by Lao Tzu
Balance between "soft" and "hard
A military book that thoroughly explains the theory of organization
Superiors and subordinates under the national mobilization system
Supervisors and subordinates under extreme circumstances
The Essence of Human Relations
Fictitious Dialogue: Lao Tzu and Sun Tzu (3) "Two Ideas Facing War
Is "Laozi" the philosophy of a "recluse"?
Human beings in an organization
Chapter 4: How to walk through life
Lao Tzu: Be as you are.
Let go of what is superfluous
Know to be content
Encourage thrift
Abandon Relative Values
The Interest of "Lao Tzu
Sun Tzu: Be Resourceful
Hints of wisdom and strategy unique to a military book
Be resourceful and act flexibly
Aim not to win, but to "never lose
New people, new classics
Fictitious dialogue Lao Tzu and Sun Tzu (4) "Lao Sun" philosophy as a medicine for life
▼ True happiness
Laozi and Zhuangzi
To "Lao-Sun" philosophy
Conclusion
As a guideline for living in anxious times
About Lao Tzu (The Book)
The title “Laozi” was given to these written works only in later times, and originally they were simply nameless books. The “Laozi” is sometimes called the “Laozi Moral Sutra,” the “Moral Sutra,” or the “True Moral Sutra,” meaning that it is a scripture in which Laozi describes the “Way” and the “Virtues.
Laozi” as we know it today has 81 chapters, but it was not until later in history that it was divided into chapters, probably by the end of the Former Han Dynasty, and only later did the order of the chapters become the current order.
The original form of the ancient “Laozi” came into view only after two major discoveries in the twentieth century. Until then, a stone carving from the early 8th century was thought to be the oldest extant text, but two versions of the “Laozi” called the “Haku-sho (帛書) ‘Laozi'” (each named A-bon and B-bon, with A-bon dated around 200 B.C. and B-bon dated 200 B.C.) were found on silk from an ancient tomb in Bawangdui, dating back 900 years. The A version was copied around 200 B.C., while the B version was copied two or three decades later.
In addition, several types of bamboo strips (chikkan: strips of bamboo cut into small pieces on which characters are written and tied with a cord like a bamboo screen) were found at the site of Chuzhou during the Warring States period, and a “Guotian Chuxian (Laozi),” written about a century earlier than the above-mentioned “Laozi” from Mawangdui.
Both the Haku-shu and Chuxian are not arranged in chapters, but the arrangement of the documents is almost the same as that of the present Laozi, although the Haku-shu is in the reverse order of “virtue” and “way”, while the Chuxian is completely different from the order of the present book, and research on “Laozi” continues to progress.
The original “Laozi,” a book of thought that has been read in China since ancient times, is a compact book of about 5,000 characters, but its written content is very simple and difficult to understand, and many commentaries have been written to interpret the meaning of the words and phrases. The oldest extant commentary on the Laozi is the commentary written in the middle of the third century by Wangpil of the Wei Dynasty, while another well-known commentary is the one written in the Former Han Dynasty by Prince He Shang, who borrowed the name of Prince He Shang and is considered to have been established later than the Wangpil commentary. In Japan, many translations of “Laozi” have been published by scholars, but most of them are based on the translator’s subjective viewpoint, and it is questionable whether they faithfully represent the ideas of “Laozi.
The “Lao Tzu” is not a sequential narrative, nor does it have a beginning and end, nor does it repeat the same ideas in different chapters. The arrangement of the chapters has no meaning, so it can be read from anywhere.
What is the “Way” at the root of Lao Tzu’s philosophy?
Lao Tzu’s philosophy will be a book about “the way” as it is called “Taoist thought”. The “Dao” here does not refer to the roads we normally use.
Along with Taoist thought, Confucian thought, known as one of the two major philosophies of ancient China, similarly emphasizes the importance of “Dao. The “Dao” of Confucianism refers to practical morality, a set of rules of goodwill and discipline, the highest ideals to be emulated in human life. The embodiment of “Dao” is “rites,” and rites toward superiors and parents are regarded as important for human beings to respect.
The “Dao” of Laozi is different from the “Dao” of Confucianism. As in Confucianism, it indicates the way to be a human being, but more importantly, it includes the fundamental principle or basis for the creation of heaven, earth, and all things. Taking the “Dao” of Confucianism one step further, the survival and existence of all things, not only human society but also the universe at large, depend on the “Dao. While the Confucianists viewed the Tao as “anthropology,” the Taoists expanded it to the limit and viewed it as a “natural science.
To understand the Tao, which is the basis of the fundamental philosophy of “Laozi,” is to understand how all things (including human beings) that make up this world are born and how they end up.
First, let us look at the origin of all things, the beginning of heaven, earth, and all things, as described in “Laozi. Chapter 25 describes the relationship between the beginning of all things and the Way.
Mixture of things, the beginning of heaven and earth. The first heaven and the earth are the mother of all things.
Things are mixed, and are born before heaven and earth. It is lonely and desolate, independent and unaltered, and it has been around for a long time and has never been found to be compromised. It is the mother of the whole world. （Something was born before heaven and earth, moving chaotically. It is the mother of the world.
This passage expresses the chaotic state of heaven and earth before all things were born. Humans have always thought of the Creator of heaven and earth as “God. In Christianity, the “Lord” created the world, and in Japanese mythology, the “gods” created heaven and earth. However, in “Lao Tzu,” “God” as the Creator does not appear. Lao Tzu’s philosophy is characterized by the fact that it does not assume God as the Creator, as in the phrase “without change” (without dependence). This is the reason why “Lao Tzu” is said to be philosophical. Chapter 25 continues as follows
I do not know my name. I do not know my name. I do not know your name, and I do not know your name.
I do not know his name, but I write his name and say it is the way, and I do not know his name and say it is great. If it is great, it will go away; if it goes away, it will be far away; if it is far away, it will be contrary to what it says. (I do not know its name. (I don’t know its name, but I will call it “the way” with the character “kari” and “dai” with the name “dai. (I don’t know its name, but I will call it “big,” and if you call it “big,” it will go everywhere, and if it goes everywhere, it will go far away, and if it goes far away, it will come back again.)
Lao Tzu says that heaven and earth were born from the movement of chaos. The “movement of chaos” is read as “the Way,” which refers not to a figurative being like God, but to the fundamental path or order from which something is born. The phrase, “I do not know its name,” means that the formless thing that precedes everything has no name, but without a name, people would not be able to recognize and explain it together.
As the next sentence says, “The name of the “way” is “dai” (大),” which means “the way” and “dai” are the same thing. The “way” has infinite size and extends to every corner of the world, and “dai” expresses the infinite output of the “way” and its infinite expansion.
The word “dai” expresses the infinite output and boundless expanse of the “way.” “If it is great, it will pass away; if it passes away, it will be far away; if it is far away, it will be contrary to the way. In the case of human beings living within the “Way,” it refers to the natural order in which we are born according to the “Way,” live in this world with our own activities, and finally die (return) to the “Way” once again.
In Chapter 25, we are told that there are four “great” things in this world: the “Greatness of the Way,” the “Greatness of Heaven,” and the “Greatness of Earth.
The four “greats” are: the Way, the Heaven, the Earth, and the King. There are four great things in the world, and the king is one of them.
The way is great, the heaven is great, the earth is great, and the king is also great. There are four great things in the region, and the king is in one of them. (The way is great, the heavens are great, the earth is great, and the king is also great. There are four great things in the world, and the king occupies one of them.)
In addition to the Dao and heaven and earth being “great,” it is stated that the king, who in ancient China was considered more than a mere party, but an absolute being, is also “great.
Chapter 25 concludes with the following words
Man dharma earth, earth dharma heaven, heaven dharma way, and way dharma nature.
Man is lawful on earth, earth is lawful in heaven, heaven is lawful in the way, and the way is lawful in nature. （Man follows the example of earth, earth follows the example of heaven, heaven follows the example of the Way, and the Way follows its own way.)
For example, we avoid wetlands and build our houses on dry, hard soil, and when we farm, we grow crops according to the shape of the land and soil.
The “earth is lawful to the heavens” means that the earth is blessed by the activities of the points, such as the rotation of the sun and the moon and the changes of the seasons, to make plants and animals grow, and “the heavens are lawful to the path” means that the sun and the moon exist at the points and that phenomena such as sunshine, cloudy weather, wind and rain exist because they follow the “path” that created the heavens and the earth. The last phrase is “the way is lawful by nature.
The “nature” of the last phrase, “the Way is the law of nature,” does not refer to the nature we think of, such as flowers, birds, wind, moon, mountains, grass, and trees, but to “nature as it is,” which means the state of being as it has always been, without any influence from other sources. The “way” refers to the state of being as it is, without any influence from other things. It means that the “path” was not made into a “path” by something else, but that it has been a “path” since before heaven and earth were conceived, and that there is no change or unreasonableness in its function. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
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