Laozi
The legendary author of the Daodejing, the short book of water-soft wisdom that counterweights every system-builder.
Core ideas
- The softest things overcome the hardest
- Governing well means governing lightly
- Names and categories are useful but never final
Historical context
Whether one sage or a school's collected voice, the Daodejing speaks from the same war-torn centuries as Confucius — and recommends the opposite politics.
Key works
Daodejing (attributed)
Questions they speak to
Minds in conversation
Sources
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Daoism