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History & Society
Tao-te Ching
Chinese literature
Also known as: “Daodejing”, “Laozi”
Category:
History & Society
- Chinese [Wade-Giles romanization]:
- “Classic of the Way of Power”
- Pinyin romanization:
- Daodejing
Tao-te Ching, classic of Chinese philosophical literature. The name was first used during the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce). It had previously been called Laozi in the belief that it was written by Laozi, identified by the historian Sima Qian as a 6th-century-bce curator of the imperial Chinese archives. Laozi, however, is better known as the reputed founder of Daoism, a way of life (the Chinese word dao, or tao, means “way”) that, among many competing “Ways,” alone became known as the Dao school, or Daoism. The long tradition that Laozi was the author of the Tao-te Ching was so ...(100 of 367 words)