biography
| name: |
Laozi
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| |
also spelled Lao-tzu or Lao-tse (‘Old Master’)
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pronunciation:
[lautsee]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (?6th-c BC)
|
| biography:
| The legendary founder of Chinese Taoism (Daoism). Nothing is known of his life: the oldest biography (c.100 BC) claims he held official rank. He was first mentioned by Zhuangzi. Taoist tradition attributes their classic text, the Daodejing (Tao Te Ching) to Laozi, but it was written in the 3rd-c BC. By the 2nd-c AD, Taoists claimed he had lived more than once and had travelled to India, where he became the Buddha. (Later he was claimed to have founded Manichaeism.) The Tang emperors (618–906) claimed descent from him. |
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