All Things Pass
All Things Pass
All Things Pass
Earth...sky...thunder...
mountain...water...
wind...fire...lake...
These change
And if these do not last
Lao Tzu or Laozi, who existed in the 6th century B.C, was the founder
of the Chinese philosophical ‘School of the Tao’ or ‘Taoism’. He was
known to be a contemporary of the great and the most revered Chinese
teacher and philosopher ‘Confucius’, but some legends believe that they
both were same person, whereas according to some he existed before
Confucius. The origin and life of Laozi is extremely ambiguous and
even after centuries of research very little is known about his life.
Nevertheless, his teachings have been handed down through centuries
and today his followers are manifold. Laozi’s philosophy was
particularly known have been prominent during the Han Dynasty,
though the philosopher lived in the Zhou Dynasty, the longest surviving
dynasty in primeval China. It was in the Han Dynasty that Taoism was
strongly established and was religiously followed. However, none of the
original texts about Taoism have any reference about Laozi’s life. Due
to less information, several speculations, confusions and also conflicts
about the life and death of Laozi, have arisen in the past few decades.
Many researchers are of the view that ‘Tao te ching’ the religious and
philosophical book written by Laozi, was in fact not written by him
alone. Some others are even of the opinion that the philosopher never
existed and Laozi can be referred to any old wise man of the ancient
China who preached philosophy.
Sadness
by Confucius
The sun is ever full and bright,
The pale moon waneth night by night.