Life
Lao Tzu means 'Old Master.' Tradition places him in China around the 6th century BCE, a record keeper in the royal court of Zhou. Whether he was one man, many, or a composite of sages is one of the oldest open questions in scholarship.
The story is that as the dynasty declined he rode west on a water buffalo to disappear into the mountains. At the border a guard refused to let him pass until he wrote down his teaching. The 81 short chapters that resulted became the Tao Te Ching — the book of the Way and its virtue.
It is the second most translated text in human history, after the Bible. Every generation since has found itself in it.
Works
Teaches across