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ssss1 Chine, p. 114.

ssss1 Geschichte der Philosophie, B. 1. p. 142.

ssss1 Compare Rémusat, Mémoire sur la vie et les opinions de Lao-tseu, &c., p. 20.

ssss1

The life of Lao-tzŭ, like the book which he wrote, is enveloped in mystery; and one might almost be excused for doubting whether such a person ever actually existed. One author, indeed, has even gone the length of saying that Lao-tzŭ was made out of space or vacuity (hung 洪).ssss1 The most reliable account of him which has come down to us is that by Szŭ Ma-chien, or Sze-ma-thsien (司馬遷), in the Shi-chi (史記), and this is very brief and unsatisfactory. We have also occasional notices of him in other old books, but the stories told about him in the Records of Spirits and Fairies and works of a like nature are, as Julien observes, only a tissue of falsehoods which all sensible men reject.

Szŭ Ma-chien saysssss1 Lao-tzŭ was a native of the hamlet Chʽü-jen (曲仁) of the parish Lai or Li (厲) in the district Kʽu (苦), a town of the state Chu (楚): his surname was Li (李), his name Erh (耳), his style Po-yang (伯陽) and his posthumous designation Tan (聃).ssss1 He was in office at the court of Chou 周 as Shou-tsang-shĭ-chĭ-shĭ (守藏室之史), which Julien translates “gardien des archives.”