Lao Tzu was an ordinary person in the Spring and Autumn Period.
The reason why he is an ordinary person is that many of his things were not recorded in that era when there was a written record. The reason why he can't be recorded is that he is not an important person.
So his birth, his family, his education, his work, his descendants, and his death all have a lot of legends. Therefore, we cannot give a complete chronology of Lao Tzu like those kings and famous ministers and generals who have historical records. It is also in this sense that he is ordinary.
Lao Tzu was born in about 571 BC in Chen Guoku County, which is Luyi County. The state of Chen is a small country, not long after Lao Tzu was born, in 568 BC the state of Chen was destroyed by the state of Chu, so Lao Tzu became a native of Chu. However, in 529 BC, King Chuping restored the state of Chen. Later, the state of Chen struggled to survive in the gap between Wu and Chu, and was finally destroyed by the state of Chu in 478 BC. This kind of status quo in which the country can be destroyed at any time is the era in which Lao Tzu lived, and it is difficult to say which country Lao Tzu is. So Lao Tzu is a man without a motherland, and if he wants to say that he has, he will say that he is from the Zhou Dynasty.
Lao Tzu has a normal person's adolescence, he has a wife named Tingyang, and a son named Li Zong, but the authenticity of these things is really difficult to verify, an ordinary person is not too concerned, let alone his wife and children.
But Lao Tzu still has a learning era like all our young people. There are also legends about his teachers, some say that they studied with a person named Chang Fang, and some say that they studied with a relict of the Shang Dynasty named Shang Rong, and these teachers can't be taken seriously. But at least he had the conditions to study when he was a teenager, and he studied hard, and he understood that he had to get off the horse when he got to the entrance of the village, and he had to salute when he passed by the old tree, and he also understood the truth that softness is better than strength from the phenomenon of the old man's tongue falling out of his teeth.
In 551 B.C., it was the time for Lao Tzu to work, and at the age of twenty, Lao Tzu was recommended to become the librarian of the Zhou royal family because of his good learning ability. The benefit of this job may be the opportunity to read more books and socialize more people. It seems like a good starting point for a young person.
After 16 years of work, the thirty-six-year-old Lao Tzu did not rise to prominence as expected, but in 535 B.C. because he offended the powerful, his career was affected, and he was dismissed like our young people today. After being dismissed, Lao Tzu left the Zhou royal family, and it is said that he also went to Lu to preside over a friend's ceremony, and also met Confucius, who was only 17 years old, at that ceremony. There is no historical material to tell us why Lao Tzu presided over this ceremony, whether it was a friendship or a means of life. But quitting was a career blow.
Five years have passed, and we don't know what Lao Tzu is doing in these five years, most likely he is still reading and studying the Tao in his heart.
Five years later, perhaps something was wrong with the powerful at the time, another faction came to power, or a friend became powerful, in short, in 530 BC Lao Tzu was recalled to continue to work as a librarian. It's like we're back to work, but we haven't been promoted, and we're still doing our old jobs.
Ten years later, when Lao Tzu's mother died in his fifties, Lao Tzu asked for leave to return to his hometown to mourn his mother according to Zhou Li's request. Just as we go home to bury the elderly when they die. In 518 BC, Lao Tzu returned to work after the end of his mourning period. I am fifty-three years old this year, and it seems impossible to change my work and life.
But the change took place, and two years later, in 516 BC, the prince brought the texts to Chu. Wang Zichao is the eldest son of King Zhou Ling, although King Zhou Ling likes him very much, but he is still not qualified to succeed to the throne. Therefore, after the death of King Ling of Zhou in 520 BC, he was succeeded by the crown prince Meng, who was the king of Zhou. However, the prince dynasty raised troops to seize the throne, and once led the king of Zhou, only later the Jin state intervened strongly, and the prince dynasty failed to seize power and ran to the Chu state. But when he fled, he took the Zhou royal family books with him. And the one who manages the classics is Lao Tzu. At the age of fifty-five, Lao Tzu was dismissed from his post as the keeper of the Tibetan Room for dereliction of duty. Lao Tzu is once again caught in a power struggle and has no way to control his own destiny.
However, the person is already fifty-five years old, and this age is the age at which our current section-level leaders retire from the second line, so Lao Tzu has no intention of seeking reinstatement again, even if he retires. In this way, Lao Tzu has basically worked all his life, and he has been in the same position for 30 years, and he has been unemployed for 5 years.
Lao Tzu's experience is no different from that of all our sentient beings, in that era of heroes in the Spring and Autumn Period, Lao Tzu's work experience is so ordinary, so ordinary that it is like the work experience of most of us, there is nothing to say. What kind of work can a librarian do, he can't do it, and in the end, he hasn't taken care of the books, but let the prince take them away, which is not a good night. On the whole, the work is very dull, not to mention any achievements. The work that Lao Tzu does is similar to the work of too many of us, that is, it is a maintenance work, and it is good if there is no chaos, not to mention that Lao Tzu is still in chaos.
Now that you're retired, let's go home. So Lao Tzu could only return to his hometown to live his retirement life. This situation is very similar to many of our retired Chinese today, when they return home, if they have grandchildren to go to school, Lao Tzu can pick them up, take them to play, and walk by the river when they are idle. There is nothing recorded in the history books, what is there to record a retired ordinary old man?Undoubtedly, this life is a bit dull.
So Lao Tzu, like many of us who want to have a trip after retirement, wants to see the great rivers and mountains. Everyone traveled in a private car with their wives. But Lao Tzu's wife may have passed away, his son is also **, and there is no tall horse at home, so he rode a green ox and started his own trip.
This was originally a very common thing, just like the uncles and aunts who travel around the world every day, but for Lao Tzu, the real life has just begun. So now the Internet always loves to publicize, and the real talent starts at the age of fifty, and I think this is according to the plan written by Lao Tzu.
The reason why Lao Tzu's life has just begun is because an incident happened during the trip, which is to go out of the customs and write **.
Leaving the customs is to send a letter to Guguan to Qin, and from Qin to Longxi. This is the travel route that Lao Tzu planned for himself. But before Lao Tzu arrived, Guan Ling Yin Xi saw the purple qi coming from the east and felt that there was a saint coming.
A few days later, it was Lao Tzu who came. Yin Xi had a conversation with Lao Tzu, and during the conversation, Lao Tzu talked about the Tao in his heart that could not be described and was difficult to recognize. In the face of this way, we can only conform to nature, let go of obsessions, do not violate the law when doing things, do not force the results, and seek the fruits of doing things with the method of inaction. He also said that only in this way can we be free according to nature and laws, and let people achieve a state of freedom beyond the worldly utilitarianism in life. This kind of conversation undoubtedly shocked Yin Xi, making him seem to hear the voice of heaven. So he asked Lao Tzu to write these down, and Lao Tzu didn't think much about it, so he wrote his first ** and last article "Tao Te Ching".
Lao Tzu, who has not pursued fame and fortune in his life, did not expect that this ** is more powerful than the hot headlines, and has caused a huge impact for thousands of years.
The fire of the article made the exit a beautiful hidden word, so that the purple gas from the east became a kind of auspiciousness, and even the green ox he rode became a sacred cow, and what made Lao Tzu even more unexpected was that he actually became the ancestor of Taoism in the name of Taishang Laojun.
Lao Tzu really didn't have a big name in history before he left the customs. Maybe he spent a long time in the library, read a lot of books, and became a little famous among intellectuals. He didn't take this little fame seriously, although there have been several records in history, it was because Confucius asked him for advice, and he was stained with Confucius's light.
Therefore, Lao Tzu's inner indifference should not be pretended, he was willing to do a librarian to the end all his life, rather than running around for fame like many scholars at that time. However, those big names in the back, and even becoming Taishang Laojun, actually have little to do with Lao Tzu himself, and he doesn't know. After he finished writing, he continued to travel west, and heard about many places, but he didn't post any moments, and we can only guess, but we can't be sure where he ended up.
The person surnamed Li said that he finally settled in Longxi and became a ** from Longxi. Therefore, the Li family of Longxi regards it as an ancestor, and Li Shimin and Li Bai are all his descendants. Because in history it is said that his surname is Li, Ming'er, the word Dan, and Zhen Boyang, so the Li clan has an ancestor of a world celebrity.
Many people are very knowledgeable, but they are not consistent with their own experiences. Lao Tzu is a person whose experience is consistent with his learning. In his heart, living an ordinary life is more important than becoming a celebrity.
After reading so many books, he never thought about what grand pursuits he wanted to make, what immortal deeds he wanted to establish, what he wanted to establish a learning and a sect, and what he wanted to become the founding ancestor of something. This can be seen from his experience, a librarian's job, he has been doing it for thirty years. In this most important time, he didn't make any nobles, nor did he write any articles to shock the world, let alone establish any organizations, or accept any disciples, so he lived quietly in the face of nature and society, doing what he should do, thinking about the problems he had to think about, and integrating himself with the world. Ordinary and poor, but also happy and peaceful.
Looking at Lao Tzu's life, it is more emotional than his knowledge. Although Lao Tzu is an ordinary person, he can still read in that era, and he can work in the library of the Son of Heaven is more common than the world, and Han Shi has a so-called better starting point in life, but he still values this ordinary life, and does not have a passionate life, but just wants to face the world quietly and live his life.
Perhaps Lao Tzu's inspiration to us lies not in his knowledge, but in his life, that ordinary and full of wisdom.