Liezi (redirected from Lie Zi)

Liezi

 or Lieh-tzu

(flourished 4th century BC, China) Chinese Daoist philosopher. He was one of the three primary philosophers who developed the tenets of Daoist thought, and he is the presumed author of the Daoist work Liezi. Many of the writings traditionally attributed to him have been identified as later forgeries, but he is still widely believed to have been a historical figure.

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Liezi

 or Lieh-tzu

Chinese Daoist classic. Though Liezi is traditionally named as its author, in its present form it probably dates from the 3rd or 4th century AD. Like earlier Daoist classics, it emphasizes the mysterious dao (way). The “Yang Zhu” chapter acknowledges the futility of challenging the dao and asserts that all one can look forward to in life is sex, music, physical beauty, and material abundance. This fatalistic belief in a life of radical self-interest was a new development in Daoism.