Publication Type
Encyclopaedia
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
9-2018
Abstract
Confucianism, Daoism (Taoism), and Buddhism generally name the three main currents of Chinese thought, although it should be obvious that like any “ism,” they are abstractions—what they name are not monolithic but multifaceted traditions with fuzzy boundaries. In the case of “Daoism,” it designates both a philosophical tradition and an organized religion, which in modern Chinese are identified separately as daojia and daojiao, respectively. With their own rich histories and internal differences, the two are deeply intertwined. Laozi (or Lao-tzu, in the “Wade-Giles” system of transliteration favored by earlier generations of Western scholars) figures centrally in both.
Discipline
Asian Studies | Philosophy
Research Areas
Integrative Research Areas
First Page
1
Last Page
37
Publisher
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Citation
CHAN, Alan Kam Leung.
Laozi in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2018). 1-37.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cis_research/309
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/laozi/