Laozi

Timeline

1. c. -571–-520Zhou royal capital (Luoyi) · LuoyangTraditional accounts say Laozi was an archivist of the Zhou royal library, in charge of royal texts. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and English Wikipedia both note that this biography comes mainly from the Records of the Grand Historian, and modern scholars largely regard it as a later accreted legend rather than an independently verifiable career.
2. c. -520–-500Hangu Pass · SanmenxiaLegend holds that seeing the Zhou house in decline he departed west; the pass warden Yin Xi asked him to write, and he left the 5,000-character Laozi expounding dao, de, and non-action. Excavated manuscripts such as the Guodian Chu slips show the Dao De Jing text was still being accretively revised in the Warring States period and should not be seen as written in a single act.
3. c. -500–-471The west or the state of Chu · ChinaTraditional narrative breaks off after he passed through the gate. His thought spread through the Laozi text and later commentaries, gradually revered as the source of Daoism and deified in Daoism as Taishang Laojun.