# Laozi

- Id: `laozi`
- Canonical url: `https://prokopton42.com/en/thinkers/laozi/`
- Language: `en`
- Editorial status: `available`
- Content checksum: `5feeda2ee724c1494e862568ea7ca8a2ba8ce343bb181e9e154a2e02f0b230e7`

## Summary

The traditional figure credited with the Daodejing, Laozi speaks for a way of acting without forcing, although his historical identity is disputed.

## Overview

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

```json
{
    "display": "traditional 6th century BCE; historical identity disputed",
    "era": "Classical Antiquity",
    "distance": "about 2,575 years ago",
    "age_at_death": null
}
```

## Intellectual tradition

```json
{
    "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

```json
{
    "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

```json
{
    "works": 1,
    "passages": 81,
    "languages": [
        "en",
        "fr",
        "lzh"
    ],
    "intellectual_exposures": 2,
    "typed_relationships": 2
}
```

## Places

```json
[
    {
        "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/"
    }
]
```