In the late Spring and Autumn Period, Lao Tzu (Li Er) and Confucius were two of the pinnacle figures in Chinese civilization, and it is said that the two had an exchange, "Confucius saw Lao Tzu for three days without speaking", and Lao Tzu drank with a stick, leaving Confucius speechless for three days.
In this peak dialogue, the "History" only records that Lao Tzu said one word to Confucius, and as for the other words, Confucius did not explain it later. Later, when Lao Tzu rode his bull westward, passing through Hangu Pass, Yin Xi begged for a book, and Lao Tzu left five thousand words of the Tao Te Ching and drifted away.
What is quite puzzling is why Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching was passed on to Yin Xi instead of Confucius. It is generally interpreted that Confucius Shangru pursued accession to the world, Lao Tzu Shangdao pursued seclusion, and life pursued the opposite direction, so Lao Tzu naturally did not pass on Confucius's Tao Te Ching. But this statement is pure nonsense, because the ultimate goal of Lao Tzu and Confucius is "anti-war", but the means of realization are different, Lao Tzu hopes that small countries and widows, old and dead do not interact with each other, Confucius hopes that the princes will respect the Zhou and abide by the rules of the Zhou rites, so Lao Tzu and Confucius have a basis for cooperation. What's more, the Tao Te Ching is not a unique secret, nor is it worth cherishing ourselves, and if Lao Tzu wants to achieve the goal of anti-war, it is best to spread the Tao Te Ching all over the world so that people can accept its views, so that they can get what they want, so why should they be stingy with Confucius? Therefore, it is undoubtedly very ridiculous to explain that Yin Xi does not pass on Confucius from the perspective of the difference in thinking between the two people.
In fact, whether Lao Tzu passed on the Tao Te Ching to Yin Xi before the 1990s, many modern scholars did not seem to be too sure, because although the history books say that Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching, in fact, this book is not in line with the atmosphere of the Spring and Autumn Period.
First of all, let's look at a question, is the Tao Te Ching really written by Lao Tzu in the Spring and Autumn Period? If the Tao Te Ching was not written by Lao Tzu during the Spring and Autumn Period, then there is no controversy that Lao Tzu did not pass on Confucius's Tao Te Ching. In fact, the Tao Te Ching is not a conclusion written by Lao Tzu in the Spring and Autumn Period, nor is it nonsense. It should be noted that there may be three authors of the Tao Te Ching recorded in the "History of LaoZi", of which two were in the Spring and Autumn Period, namely Li Er or Lao Laizi of the Chu State, who can be called "LaoZi".
In the 1970s, the Early Han Dynasty Tao Te Ching was unearthed from the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, Hunan Province, compared with the "Tao Te Ching" we are familiar with, the number of characters between the two is similar, although there are more than 700 differences between the two editions, but mainly to avoid (the Emperor of the Han Dynasty) to avoid, simplify, and tamper with some of the text, the overall meaning is roughly similar.
There are many puzzling points in the Tao Te Ching, such as the following three points:
First of all, the book says that there are "lords of ten thousand multipliers", that is, there are ten thousand chariots, but in the entire Spring and Autumn Period, the strongest hegemony states of Jin, Qin, Qi, and Chu did not exceed five thousand.
Secondly, the book says that "thirty spokes are a total of one hub", that is, "thirty spokes constitute a wheel", according to the scholar Guo Baojun's research, there was no such car in the Spring and Autumn Period, and it did not appear until the middle and late Warring States period.
In the third book, it is said many times that "we will want to take the world", Lao Tzu advocates small countries and widows, "taking the world" is undoubtedly contrary to Lao Tzu's thought, more importantly, Lao Tzu lived in the late Spring and Autumn Period, there are still dozens of princely states in the world in a scuffle, there is no possibility of reunification at all, how to say "will want to take the world"?
Therefore, in modern times, many literati believe that the Spring and Autumn Laozi's "Tao Te Ching" is not credible, and this book should be a work of the Warring States period, such as Liang Qichao, who believes that this book was written at the end of the Warring States period. In view of this, lao tzu naturally could not have passed on the Tao Te Ching to Confucius in the Spring and Autumn Period.
However, in the 1990s, archaeologists found a Chujian version of the Tao Te Ching, which basically confirmed that the original version of the Tao Te Ching was written by Lao Tzu in the Spring and Autumn Period. In the Tomb of the Warring States chu of Guodian, Jingmen City, Hubei Province, a large number of bamboo janes were unearthed, totaling more than 13,000 Chu scripts, including a variety of ancient books, including the Tao Te Ching, a total of more than 2,000 words, about 40% of today's version. More importantly, compared with the Warring States Seal of the Shushu edition, the Chujian Edition has the Imprint of the Spring and Autumn Period, such as the following three points:
First of all, the saying that "the Lord of Ten Thousand Multiplications" and "Thirty Spokes Have One Hub" is not in the Chu Jian version. At the same time, in the Chu Jian version, there was only one place to "take the world with nothing", and at that time, only the Zhou royal family could take the world, and it had not yet seen a princely state that could rely on force to unify the world.
Secondly, compared with the Shushu version, the Anti-War Strength of the Chujian Edition is not too strong, for example, "The soldier is not a gentleman's weapon", and the Shushu version has become "the ominous weapon of the husband and the soldier, the thing or the evil." "In the late Spring and Autumn Period, although wars were frequent, the overall intensity and intensity were far less than those of the Warring States period, and this social status quo was bound to be reflected in the article.
Third, compared with the Shushu edition, the Chujian edition has not yet been extreme to the point of anti-sainthood, nor has it denied benevolence and righteousness, so it is said that "absolute wisdom abandons defense, absolute deception and abandonment of hypocrisy", but after the Warring States, the war became more and more tragic, and the literati were more prone to extremism, so the Shushu edition became "absolutely holy and abandoning wisdom, absolute righteousness and renunciation of benevolence".
In view of the strong characteristics of the Spring and Autumn Period in Chu Jian's Tao Te Ching, it can be basically concluded that Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching first, and later the literati of the Warring States Period revised it according to the situation of the times.
According to Sima Qian's records, the author of the Tao Te Ching may also have been Zhou TaiShi Dan, that is, the historical official of the Zhou royal family, whose name was Dan, who traveled west to the Qin state around 350 BC, and when he saw Qin Xiangong, he said: "Zhou Is separated from the Qin state, and it is not five hundred years old, and the king is out of the king at the age of seventeen." ”
Whether Zhou Taishi Dan wrote the Tao Te Ching is certainly not verifiable, but among the three authors of the Tao Te Ching recorded by Sima Qian, there were Li Er and Lao Laizi of the Chu State in the Spring and Autumn Period, and one was Zhou Tai Shi Dan in the Warring States Period. Therefore, if Sima Qian's account is credible, then the author of the Shushu edition of the Tao Te Ching must have been Zhou Taishi Dan, and this edition was later passed down.
It can be seen that the book "Tao Te Ching" was written by Lao Tzu in the Spring and Autumn Period, but Lao Tzu was already old at that time, and the Qin State was not an influential country at that time, and Lao Tzu had no reason or physical strength to go west to the Qin State to preach. In the Warring States period, as the war became more and more tragic, the Spring and Autumn "Tao Te Ching" could no longer reflect the tragic reality, so Zhou Taishi Dan rewrote a version on the basis of LaoZi, and the anti-war ideology was more intense. When Zhou Taishi dan traveled west to the Qin state, he may have taken the initiative to disseminate the Tao Te Ching, hoping to influence the decision-making of the Qin people.
References: The Tao Te Ching, Chu Jian Tao Te Ching, Shi Ji, etc