{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-thinker-v1",
    "id": "laozi",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/thinkers/laozi/",
    "language": "en",
    "title": "Laozi",
    "editorial_status": "available",
    "summary": "The traditional figure credited with the Daodejing, Laozi speaks for a way of acting without forcing, although his historical identity is disputed.",
    "body": "Conservative late fourth-century BCE horizon for the formative Laozi collections. This is a textual horizon, not a claim that one biographical author lived until this date.",
    "lifespan": {
        "display": "traditional 6th century BCE; historical identity disputed",
        "era": "Classical Antiquity",
        "distance": "about 2,575 years ago",
        "age_at_death": null
    },
    "intellectual_tradition": {
        "id": "chinese-thought",
        "name": "Early Chinese thought",
        "detail": "Early Chinese thought and Daoist textual tradition",
        "labels": [
            "Early Chinese thought",
            "Early Chinese thought and Daoist textual tradition"
        ]
    },
    "historical_cutoff": {
        "year": -300,
        "display": "300 BCE",
        "reason": "Conservative late fourth-century BCE horizon for the formative Laozi collections. This is a textual horizon, not a claim that one biographical author lived until this date."
    },
    "statistics": {
        "works": 1,
        "passages": 81,
        "languages": [
            "en",
            "fr",
            "lzh"
        ],
        "intellectual_exposures": 2,
        "typed_relationships": 2
    },
    "attested_thinker_encounters": [],
    "places": [
        {
            "name": "Chu cultural region",
            "period": "Warring States period",
            "description": "A plausible cultural setting for early Laozi materials, not a secure biographical location.",
            "confidence": "D",
            "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/laozi/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Guodian",
            "period": "late 4th century BCE manuscript context",
            "description": "Archaeological setting of bamboo texts containing early parallels. This witness is not silently substituted for the received 81-chapter work.",
            "confidence": "B",
            "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/laozi/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Mawangdui",
            "period": "2nd century BCE manuscript context",
            "description": "Archaeological setting of two silk Laozi manuscripts whose order and readings remain distinct from the received recension.",
            "confidence": "A",
            "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/laozi/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Quren / Luyi",
            "period": "later Shiji tradition",
            "description": "The Shiji biography assigns Laozi an origin in Quren. The location and the historicity of a single author remain disputed.",
            "confidence": "E",
            "source_url": "https://iep.utm.edu/laozi/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Luoyang / Zhou royal court",
            "period": "later Shiji tradition",
            "description": "Later biography makes Laozi a keeper of Zhou archives. This is a transmitted claim, not secure itinerary evidence.",
            "confidence": "E",
            "source_url": "https://iep.utm.edu/laozi/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Hangu Pass",
            "period": "later departure legend",
            "description": "The western-pass departure and meeting with Yin Xi belong to later author legends.",
            "confidence": "E",
            "source_url": "https://iep.utm.edu/laozi/"
        }
    ],
    "content_checksum": "5feeda2ee724c1494e862568ea7ca8a2ba8ce343bb181e9e154a2e02f0b230e7"
}