"To regard the fundamental as the essence, to regard things as coarse, to regard accumulation as deficiency, and to dwell quietly alone with the spiritual and the intelligent -- herein lie the techniques of Tao of the ancients."
                                               -Lao Tzu

     Lao Tzu was a Chinese teacher and philosopher who lived 25 centuries ago.  The dates of his birth and death are disputed, and specifics of his life have been lost throughout time, but his real name is known, almost surely, to have been Li Er.  Legend states that King Wu of the Zhou Dynasty made him the head librarian of the imperial archives in the Chinese city of Luoyang.  As head librarian, Lao Tzu was free to study literature, history, and philosophy all the time.  He studied and formed his own beliefs along the way. 

     In China under the Zhou dynasty, huge advances were being made in society, invention, agriculture, and philosophy.  The Zhou dynasty is responsible for the invention of cavalry, horse-drawn chariots, and the crossbow.  Techniques for irrigation and flood-control were established, and the invention of the iron plow increased the efficiency of Chinese farmers.  Amid this atmosphere of enlightenment and advancement of all aspects of Chinese life, Lao Tzu found the Chinese people were willing to listen to what he had to say.  Lao Tzu was not the only philosopher in China, though.  Confucius, another important philosopher of the time, visited with Lao Tzu at one point, and came away impressed with Lao Tzu's wisdom and ideas.  When the House of Zhao began to decline, Lao Tzu became disenchanted with society and people's inability to be in harmony with the world. He decided to live as a nomad in the wilderness outside the Great Wall of China, in the area that is now Tibet. He left Luoyang and went towards the Hangu Pass.  A guard at the gate of the Hangu Pass asked Lao Tzu to write down his philosophies about the Tao for him.  Lao Tzu agreed, and supposedly sat down and wrote the book which would later become the Tao Te Ching in one fell swoop.

Taoism was the logical counterpart to the popular philosophy of Confucianism during the time.  While Confucianism stressed filial piety, respect for your family, elders, and country,  Taoism stressed individuality and one's personal relationship with the world.  Lao Tzu concluded that worldly desires were unnatural and created false actions .  One had to distinguish between good and evil for themselves and abandon knowledge.  When one's desires were no longer affected by knowledge such as devotion to family and country, one was free to act spontaneously, thus being in harmony with the world.  Once harmonious with everything, one's actions are never destructive since they reflect no inward desires for personal gain, and everything's cool.  Lao Tzu symbolized this belief in the writing of the Tao Te Ching by being very deliberate, but never superfluous.  This maintained a simplicity that was specific, yet open to interpretation by the reader.  When the reader fully understands and considers all the ideas Lao Tzu puts forth, the Tao Te Ching exerts its powerful, but simple influence.   




       Bibliography
"Lao Tzu: Father of Taoism." http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Philosophy/
     Taichi/lao.html .

"Lao Tzu: The Tao of Reality." http://members.aol.com/Heraklit1/
     laotzu.htm .

"Tao Te Ching." http://pages.prodigy.net/dereklin/laotzu/ .

World History: the Human Experience.  Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. 1997.