Laozi

Laozi, traditionally regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching and the founder of Taoism, is one of the most enigmatic figures in the history of philosophy. Whether a historical individual or a composite legendary figure, the Tao Te Ching attributed to him is one of the most translated texts in world literature — eighty-one short chapters of paradoxical, poetic insight into the nature of the Tao (the Way), the source and pattern of all things. Its central teaching is that wisdom consists in aligning oneself with the spontaneous, effortless flow of the Tao.