Proverbs | 17

Dao ke dao, fei chang dao. Ming ke ming, fei chang ming : The Way that can be expressed is not the everlasting way. Names that can be named are not changeless names.

The Way that can be expressed is not the everlasting way
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To anyone who is too busy to read Lao Zi (Lao Tzu), may I recommend this 12-word quotation from the Dao De Jing as a thumb-nail guide to his philosophy of the Way (Dao)? Lao Zi was what you might call a Minimalist philosopher. It is interesting to note that the only book attributed to him - Dao De Jing - consists of only five thousand-odd words, and yet his influence on Chinese civilisation throughout the centuries is immeasurable. The way Daoism (Taoism) has penetrated the very fibre of Western psyche in modern times is a tribute to the universality of its appeal. What Lao Zi was trying to do when he composed his Dao De Jing with the above 12-word opening gambit was, to my mind, to tell the squabbling philosophers to 'put a sock in it'. 'Truth lies at the bottom of the well' as the English saying goes. Incidentally, Lao Zi's real name was Li Er, Lao Zi being a term of respect (meaning 'Old Master') which has become identified with him. It is still the subject of controversy in academic circles whether or not such a figure did exist at all, and if he did, whether the book attributed to him was in fact written by himself.

The consensus is:
a) He was an elder contemporary of Confucius (551-479BC) who was about twenty years his junior.
b) The Dao De Jing which embodies Lao Zi's thinking, was compiled much later in the Warring States period (475-221BC).