Laozi

c. 6th–4th century BCE · China

Earliest record: 300 BCEGuodian bamboo slips (c. 300 BCE); Mawangdui silk manuscripts (c. 168 BCE).

The oldest copy, bamboo slips buried at Guodian around 300 BCE, holds only 31 of the 81 chapters, in another order, and lacks chapters 1 and 8.

Robert G. Henricks, Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching: A Translation of the Startling New Documents Found at Guodian (Columbia University Press, 2000)

Legendary Chinese sage, keeper of the Zhou archives in Sima Qian's account, credited with the Daodejing.

More context

In Sima Qian's account Laozi tells Confucius that the noble man of full virtue looks like a fool.

Sima Qian could not say who Laozi was: he offers Lao Laizi and the Grand Historian Dan as rival identities, unresolved.

Sources4 sources

Primary source

Laozi, Daodejing (Tao Te Ching), chapters 8 and 37 (Wang Bi text)Chapter 8: the highest excellence is like water, which benefits all things without striving and takes the low place; chapter 37: the Dao does nothing and yet nothing is left undone.
Sima Qian, Shiji, ch. 63, Biographies of Laozi and Han Fei, -94, ch. 63Laozi, surname Li, name Er, was keeper of the archives of Zhou; tells Confucius the man of full virtue looks a fool; the text also floats Lao Laizi and the Grand Historian Dan as possible identities.
周守藏室之史也

Scholarship

Robert G. Henricks, Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching: A Translation of the Startling New Documents Found at Guodian (Columbia University Press), 2000The Guodian bamboo slips, buried around 300 BC and found in 1993, are the earliest Laozi; many chapters are missing and the order differs from the received text.