lao zi; did he exist? (Jesus, Tanakh, preach, church)

[aspergers_anomalous]

actually, i think the book Zhuangzi contains a fictional encounter between confucius and laozi, is that what you mean? confucius never wrote about meeting laozi.

[Francine]

Originally Posted by aspergers_anomalous

actually, i think the book Zhuangzi contains a fictional encounter between confucius and laozi, is that what you mean? confucius never wrote about meeting laozi.

Probably because there was no one person called Laozi, more like a committee.

[Somkid]

Lao Tzu did exist and was a friend of Confucius he is considered to be the only author of the Tao however Zhuangzi wrote a book with stories in it about the Tao and is sometimes considered to be one of the authors of the Tao but I'm not sure why.

Huandgi (the Yellow Emperor) is considered to be the first Taoist but nobody can verify if he actually existed. These three factors are the reason I believe that the Tao gets confused.

[PureX]

Originally Posted by aspergers_anomalous

no one has ever been able to identify conclusively WHO Laozi was. Different men have been identified. In fact, some think that the Dao De Jing may be an anthology by multiple authors. Your thoughts? Laozi was regarded as a manifestation of the Dao, so would I be correct in assuming that his authorship is a fundamental aspect of the faith to many Daoists?

I can only read a western translation of the Tao te Ching. However, even still, I believe I can intuit the keen sense of humor of a single author within the translation. I believe the "old boy" was a specific person, and not an amalgamation of characters or ideals.

[Francine]

Originally Posted by PureX

I can only read a western translation of the Tao te Ching. However, even still, I believe I can intuit the keen sense of humor of a single author within the translation. I believe the "old boy" was a specific person, and not an amalgamation of characters or ideals.

Even if there was a single author I think Lao Tzu would have been gratified to have been erased in favor of an "anthology" hypothesis, it would be a manifestation of the following thought from the TTC:

The Master doesn't talk, he acts.
When his work is done,
the people say, "Amazing:
we did it, all by ourselves!"