Here I need to tell you another thing. No matter whose life and events, we should first talk about his birth and death dates at the very beginning. but why don’t we mention Lao Zi’s at the very beginning? Because his birth and death dates are not definite. Then how do we trace back his birth and death dates? We believe that Lao Zi’s birth date should be two decades earlier than Confucius’ birth date. According to the Historical Records, Lao Zi is about 20 years older than Confucius, and Confucius’ birth date is 551 B.C. So let’s look at this period. We usually regard the about 100 years’ time period from 551 B.C. to 471 B.C. as the period from the birth date to the death date of Lao Zi. This is the second part: Confucius inquired Lao Zi about the doctrine. Now let’s talk about the third part. The record of Lao Zi in official history is about his riding a black ox through Hangu Pass. Now I’d like to ask a question. Why here is called Guan Zhong? Yes. We are just in the middle of the four passes. To the north, it is Xiao Pass, to the south, it is Wu Pass, to the west, it is Dasan Pass, and to the east, it is Hangu Pass. Hangu Pass is located in Lingbao County, Henan Province, and it is the only road from Luoyang to Chang’an. The head of Hangu Pass was named Xi. Now we usually call him Yin Xi. Yin is also a kind of officials. Xi was good at celestial phenomena, so he foresaw that there was an important person coming, and he waited at the gate of the pass in advanced. Then came Lao Zi riding a black ox. A crowd of white egrets flew over the green fields; a black ox was soaked in the purple air. I have been thinking that this couplet is well matched. As for colors, white egrets matches black ox Female. A white egret is a kind of bird, which also matches black ox neatly. That the purple air comes from the east—a propitious omen originated from this story. Xi stopped Lao Zi and said: “You can’t pass.” “If you’d like to pass, you have to leave your thoughts.” Therefore Lao Zi stayed at Hangu Pass for several days and wrote a 5000 word book. I have to make it clear that this book didn’t had its title at that time. The book was entitled Tao Te Ching in Han Dynasty. After reading the 5000 word book, Yi Xi felt that Lao Zi’s thought was very profound, so he followed Lao Zi. Where did they go? It’s not recorded clearly in official history. Now you may wonder why Lao Zi’s life and event is so simple. Yes, that’s all about Lao Zi’s life and event recorded in the official history. If you’d like to know more about Lao Zi, you may read Taoist Sutra. In Taoism, Taoist Sutra is the ancient books and records of Taoism. In Taoism, Lao Zi is quite a great person guarded by sacred black dragon, white tiger, Suzaku and basalt. Lao Zi becomes a god. There are three most respectable gods in Taoism. One is called Primordial, who is mythological. Another one is called Lingbao Supreme who is also mythological. Another one is Morality Supreme, who was called The Very High Lord in Tang Dynasty. Lao Zi rises from a teacher to a god. So I think it is not good. When we talk about his thoughts, we prefer to regard him as a wise elder. Now I have to make a distinction between Taoists and Taoism. Actually they differ from each other in essence. Taoists was a school of thoughts full of wisdom before Qin Dynasty. It is represented by Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi. It mainly deals with the principle of the world, the law of development of things and the states of human life. Lao Zi pays more attention to the principle and the law while Zhuang Zi emphasizes more on the states of human life. Taoism was born in Han Dynasty with the symbol of Five Dou Rice School established by Zhang Ling, Taoist master Zhang. You might learn an essay written by Tao Yuanming in middle school, and you must remember one sentence: I will never cringe before the villains for five Dou rice. Five Dou rice was explained in all the textbooks as official’s salary, which is totally wrong. If the salary was just five Dou rice per year, who would like to be an official? Actually the five Dou rice here means the Five Dou Rice Sect. The sect was very rampant after it was established in Han Dynasty. Till Wei and Jin Dynasties, the official who did not get along well with the sect could not do his job well. So Tao Yuanming refused to cooperate with those people, and refused to cringe for Five Dou Rice Sect, resigning and retiring for farming. We can see that Taoist School and Taoism are different from each other in essence. Liu Xie a scholar in Wei , Jin , Northern and Southern Dynasties said It is the thought and wisdom of Lao Zi that possesses the highest level of Tao, Lao Zi should be the highest level. The middle level talks about the way of keeping good health. The middle talks about immortal. Immortal refers to the way of keeping good health in Chinese culture, so there is mysterious implication. The low level is following religious belief. That is, the occult techniques in Taoism ranks the bottom level, such as the technique of controlling wind and rain and so on. Things turns out to be mysterious if we talk about it at this level. If we pursue the highest level, then we can only achieve the middle level. If we pursue the low level, then we can only achieve the lower level. Therefore I hope you make a clear distinction between Taoists and Taoism. That is why we only talk about Lao Zi’s life and event recorded in the official history that is, the Historical Records. Now I’ll briefly summarize what I talked about today. Lao Zi was born in Qurenli, Li Village, Ku County in the State of Chu. the place is present Taiqinggong Town, Luyi County, ZhoukKou, Henan Province His communication with Confucius is regarded as an important symbol of Chinese culture, which represents the complementarity of Confucianism and Taoism. The 5000-word book Tao Te Ching was written by Lao Zi at the Hangu Passs, The book was entitled Tao Te Ching in Han Dynasty. That’s all about the life and event of Lao Zi. We’ll talk about his book and his thoughts in details later. That’s all for today.
