Laozi

Laozi (, ; ), formerly Latinized as Laocius, was a legendary Chinese philosopher considered to be the author of the Tao Te Ching (Pinyin: Dào Dé Jīng), one of the foundational texts of Taoism. Modern scholarship generally regards his biographical details as later inventions and his opus a collaboration of various writers, with the name Laozi, literally meaning 'Old Master', likely intended to portray an archaic anonymity that could converse with Confucianism. Traditional accounts addend him as , born in the 6th-centuryBC state of Chu during China's Spring and Autumn period (). Serving as the royal archivist for the Zhou court at Wangcheng (modern Luoyang), he met and impressed Confucius () on one occasion, composing the Dào Dé Jīng in a single session before retiring into the western wilderness. thumb|Laozi, sat afore his cauldron; the top-right corner inscription reads "Impression of Taishang Laojun"

A central figure in Chinese culture, Laozi is generally considered the founder of Taoism. He was claimed and revered as the ancestor of the Tang dynasty (618–907) and is similarly honored in modern China as the progenitor of the popular surname Li. In some sects of Taoism, Chinese Buddhism, Confucianism, and Chinese folk religion, it is held that he then became an immortal hermit. Certain Taoist devotees held that the Dào Dé Jīng was the avatarembodied as a bookof the god Laojun, one of the Three Pure Ones of the Taoist pantheon, though few philosophers believe this.