Laozi Legend
01 · Historical Records
The Laozi legend is the legend about Laozi handed down among the people of Guoyang for a thousand years, rich in local features; it originated in Zhengdian administrative village of Zha bei town in Guoyang county, Bozhou city, Anhui, and circulates within Guoyang county. In the legend Guoyang county is the native place of Laozi, founder of the Daoist school and ancestor of Daoism, and Zhengdian administrative village of Zha bei town is Laozi's birthplace, where the Tianjing temple, the ancestral court of Daoism, stands. In the late Qing a Tianjing temple Daoist named Ma Mingde collated the series of Laozi legends.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
These legends with a rich mythological colour reflect the deep cultural deposit of Guoyang and the profound influence of Laozi's thought. They vividly portray Laozi's life and artistically display Laozi's thought; such stories as seeking the way of heaven and discoursing on the Dao at Pei reveal Laozi's wise dialectics and his way of conducting himself and of cultivating the body and life. The Guoyang County Gazetteer, the Guoyang Local Conditions Gazetteer and the steles of the Yuan and Ming periods already unearthed all record Laozi's birth, his refining of the elixir and his passing through the pass. With the excavation and rebuilding of the Tianjing temple site many scholars also began to attend to the Laozi stories current here, and thereafter the Laozi legends spread even more widely.
The Lonely Childhood
One of the stories of Laozi's life from childhood to old age in the first part of the legend.
Discoursing on the Dao at Pei
A story artistically displaying Laozi's thought and revealing his dialectics.
The Nine Dragons Welcoming the Chariot
A legend about Laozi and the Tianjing temple in the second part of the legend.
The Origin of the Tianjing Temple
A legend about the Tianjing temple in the second part of the legend.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Laozi legend is divided mainly into two parts. The first is the stories of Laozi, showing through such stories of his life from childhood to old age as the lonely childhood, the silk tree and fair words are not beautiful his self-cultivation and his broad and profound philosophical thought exploring the universe; the second is the legends about Laozi and the Tianjing temple, including the Nine Dragons Welcoming the Chariot, Laozi and Huizi and the origin of the Tianjing temple. The Laozi legend is a collective creation handed down among the local people along with the history of the Tianjing temple, with the character of popular and regional culture. The Guo-Huai basin is one of the birthplaces of Daoist culture, and with the long history of the Tianjing temple a series of beautiful legends about Laozi and the Tianjing temple gradually arose among the local people and in the Daoist temple over a thousand years. Later his disciple Zheng Zhishan, on this basis, visited the local people and further perfected The Legendary Stories of Laozi. The relevant local workers interviewed Zheng Zhishan and recorded the related Laozi stories in writing.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Laozi Legend.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Laozi legend is handed down from generation to generation in Guoyang, mostly in local colloquial speech, plain and beautiful, enriching the treasure house of folk literature and having relatively high cultural and artistic value; it has a certain reference value for the study of Laozi's birthplace and life and plays a positive role in transmitting Laozi's thought and the culture of Daoism and the Daoist religion.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Hu Zhi 05-2025
- Huang Qinghua
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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