Around the 6th century B.C.E. Greece had Plato and Socrates; India had the Buddha and China had Confucius and Lao Tzu.? Born in Ch'u (present-day Henan Province), Lao Tzu, which literally means "old master", is also sometimes referred to as Lao Tan or Li Er. He was appointed Keeper of the Imperial Archives by the King of Zhou in Luoyang. He studied the archive's books avidly and his insight grew. Hearing of Lao Tzu's wisdom, Confucius travelled to meet him. Confucius put a lot of emphasis on traditional rituals, customs and rites. | |
Confucius asked Lao Tzu about performing rites and rituals. Lao Tzu replied: "The bones of the people you are talking about have long since turned to dust! Only their words linger on. If a man's time comes, he will be successful; if not, he will not be successful. A successful merchant hides his wealth and a noble person of character will feign foolishness. Therefore, you should give up your proud airs, your desires, vanity and extravagant claims! They are useless to you. The doctrine stated in Lao Tzu has exerted profound influence on the development of Chinese traditional culture. Over one thousand schools ever annotated Lao Tzu since the Han Dynasty, which is incomparable among the Chinese ancient books. Nowadays, research on Lao Tzu has been prevalent throughout the world. Encouraged by Lao Tzu, his followers tried to observe, and seek to understand the laws of nature; to develop intuition and build up personal power; and to use that power to lead life with love, and without force. |