Lao-tzu (Teacher of Lao, Venerable sage / philosopher, Old Child), Lao Dan Li Er Li Bo-yang Lao-jun (Lord of Lao) - the most mysterious ancient Chinese philosopher, mythologized and deified founder of Taoism, the alleged author of the "Tao te ching" ("Canon of the Way and Grace"), originally called "Lao Tzu" ("[Treatise] Teachers of Lao ").

According to traditional historiography, Lao Tzu was born in the late seventh and early sixth centuries B.C. By the twentieth century, the life span of Lao Tzu stretched from the eighth to the second centuries B.C. With more support from the first proposed by Wang Zhong (1745-1794) and justified by Liang Chi - chao (1873-1923), Fan Wen-lan (1893-1969), Hou Wai-lu (1903-1987), Yang Kuan (b. 1914) and other correlations of it with the IV-III centuries. BC, which is related to the discussion of the three main problems: 1) Lao Tzu - a real or fictional person; 2) when he lived or formed his image; 3) who was the author of the "Tao te Ching".

Already in the oldest biography of the "hidden / mysterious / anachoretic noble man" (yin jun tzu Lao-tzu in " Shi ji "("Historical Notes", ch. / ts. 63 [Sima Qian, 1956, p. 56-57; Sima Qian, vol. VII, 1996, p. 38-39]Sima Qian (c. 145 - c. 86 BC), a Taoist sympathizer, has been identified with three different personalities of the sixth and mid-fourth centuries BC: the "canonical" Li Er, the Chu Taoist, and Confucius ' contemporary (551 - 479 BC) Lao Lai-tzu, the great astrologer-historian of Zhou IV century BC Danem - and the possibility of 160-200-year life thanks to the art of " nurturing / feeding longevity "(Yang shou which later formed the basis of macrobiotics - " nurturing / feeding life "(Yang sheng Taoist yoga / " inner alchemy "(nei dan "the doctrine of immortality" (xiang xue erotology (Fang zhong shu qi-gong (working with pneuma-g/i) and wu-shu (martial arts).

It reports the birth of Lao Tzu / Li Er in the peripheral ("barbarian") southwestern state of Chu (Quren village [Solitary Humanity] of Ku County [Suffering] - present. Louis prov. Henan), where the archaic tradition of shamanism (which apparently became the primary source of Taoism) and a specific culture with signs of Western origin or influence were preserved, about his service in the western/ central of the Middle (native Chinese) states-the Zhou dynastic domain [Inclusiveness] as an astrologer-historian (shi kept the palace archive, about arriving to receive instructions on decency / ritual (Li Confucius, who likened him to a dragon, and leaving at the end of his life for an unknown destination through a border post (in the west or south), to the head of which Guan Yin (Yin Xi) he left a record of his teachings on the Way-tao and grace-te in a book from more than five thousand characters, now identified with the "Tao te Ching".

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The account of this encounter with Confucius first appeared in Chapter 13 of the classical Taoist treatise Chuang Tzu (IV-II centuries BC) and can therefore be considered fictional to demonstrate the historical and theoretical superiority of Taoism over Confucianism. According to modern research (A. S. Graham, K. Rand), "external" (wai i.e., most likely written not by Chuang Tzu himself (c. 369-c. 286 BC), but by his disciple or disciples, ch. 13 just belongs to the latest in the treatise and was created In the second century BC, following a similar logic, Yang Yun-guo (1907-1978) concluded that "Lao-tzu as a person is fictitious by Chuang-tzu" (Yang Yun-guo, 1957, p. 281), and "Tao te ching" was composed after "Chuang-tzu" [ibid., pp. 269-293]. To this it should be added that there are also three names in Chuang Tzu: Lao Dan, Lao-tzu, and Lao Lai-tzu, and in the "inner" (nei ) chapters (1-7), i.e., with a high probability belonging to Chuang Tzu himself, only Lao Dan acts, and in the first episode connected with it in Chapter 3 with the symbolic title " The main thing in nurturing/ feeding life" (Yang sheng zhu , in contrast to the traditional legend of his departure to the west, refers to his death in his homeland, and in other, more recent, chapters he is identified with Lao Tzu and once described a certain Lao Lai tzu, like Lao Tzu, denouncing and teaching Confucius (ch. 26).

In the VI-VII centuries, major textologists and commentators Lu Te-ming (c. 550-630) and Kun Ying-da (574-648) testified to a different place of birth of Lao-tzu-Xiang County./His appearance in the state of Chen Xi also required the adjustment of his entire meager biography. Discussions about it, which began in the XI-XII centuries (Chen Shi-dao 1053-1101; Wang Shi-peng 1112-1171; Ye Shi 1150-1223), continued in the XVIII-XIX centuries. (Bi Yuan 1730-1799; Wang Zhong, Cuishu 1740-1816; Kang Yu-wei 1858-1927) and flared up in the XX century at the initiative of Liang Chi-chao (1922), are based on the inconsistency of Sima Qian's data and the fact that the name Lao-tzu appears only in texts IV-III ("Chuang tzu", "Le-tzu", "Lu-shi chun qiu", "Han Fei-tzu", "Li ji"), more precisely (when they are differentiated according to different time parts), in the III century BC, and" Tao te ching " linguistically and ideologically as well corresponds to the third and even the beginning of the second century. BCE

In the course of the controversy, Mou Ting-hsiang (1827) surpassed the traditional version in archaization, identifying Lao Tzu with the dignitary Bo-yang-fu, who successfully prophesied in 780 BC, according to the Guo yu (State Speeches, IV-III centuries BC, ch. 1) [Guo yu, 1987, p. 32], and therefore lived to be 380 years old, but most scholars recognized him or Lao Dan (VII-VI centuries BC), who instructed Confucius (Hu Shi 1891-1962; Tang Lan 1900-1979; Gao Heng 1900-1986; Lu Zhen-yu 1900-1980), or the great historian-astrologer (Tai chi) Dan (IV century BC) of the Zhou Domain (Luo Gen-tse 1900-1960; Feng Jin-yuan b. 1944), or Li Er (V-III centuries BC), spiritual heir of Lao Dan and author of the Tao te Ching (Liu Ru-lin Feng Yu-fallow deer 1895-1990). Maxiu-lun (1885-1970), Huang Fang-gang, and Zhang Xu identified Lao tzu with the reverently mentioned Confucius Lao Peng (Lun yu-Theoretical Discourses, VII, 1), and GoMo - jo (1892-1978) with the Taoist Huan Yuan (IV c. BCE), i.e. Guan Yin (Yin Xi), Qian My (1895-1990) - with the Chu Taoist hermit, a virtuoso of fishing and a "connoisseur of life" (Zhong sheng Zhan/Dan He (VII-III centuries) B.C.), and Confucius ' companion - with Lao Lai-tzu. Similarly, Tan Tse-fu (1887-1974) recognized Lao Lai - tzu and Lao Peng as a single person, combining Lao Dan with the great astrologer-historian Dan.

In Western Sinology, H. A. Giles (1845-1935) [Giles, 1885/1886] pointed out that the identity of Lao Tzu is not established. According to A. Maspero (1883-1945), "most likely, Lao Tzu never existed... and the Tao te Ching was created in the beginning or middle of the IV century BC by an unknown 'mystical melancholic '" [Maspero,

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2007, p. 226, 258]. D. C. Lau and Kimura Eiichi also denied the existence of Lao Tzu, following Gu Tse-gan (1893 - 1980) by dating the non-written "Tao te Ching" to the end of the third and beginning of the second century BC in a similar way Su Chi, following G. Giles, recognized the indeterminability of the identity of Lao Tzu and postponed the creation of the anonymous "Tao te Ching" in general to the second half of the second century BC. e. Discovery in 1993 in a grave of the IV-III centuries BC. e. near the capital of Chu (modern China). Guodian County, Jingmen Prov. Hubei) the oldest fragments of the Tao te Ching (about a third of the text) it does not refute the last, most radical dating, since it concerns the final form of the canon, which, as previously assumed, could have been formed gradually and existed for a long time in the form of partial prototypes and preliminary short editions, which, for example, was isolated by A. M. Karapetyants [Karapetyants, 1978] in a quarter of the volume from the commentary chapters of "Han Fei- tzu " ("[Treatise] Teachers of Han Fei", III century BC) [Ivanov, 1912, p. 111-146] - N 20 "Tse Lao" ("Explanations of Lao [- tzu]") [Han Fei, 1973, pp. 235-257] and No. 21 "Yu Lao" ("Comparisons with Lao [- tzu]").

Sima Qian also witnessed the terminological connection between the names of Lao-tzu and the mythical Huang-di (Yellow Emperor/first ancestor) in the binomial Huang-Lao denoting the founders of Taoism and its variety, widely spread in the IV-III centuries BC-III-IV centuries AD. Since the turn of our era, in competition with the officially prevailing theistic Confucianism and the beginning preaching of Buddhism, the process of mythologizing and deifying Lao Tzu himself as "great and supreme" (tai shang "august emperor/first ancestor" (huang di "initial and primary origin" (yuan shi "heavenly venerable" (tian tsung and "heavenly father")) has developed. king "(tian wang ), "born before heaven and earth" (hsien tian di sheng being the subtlest spirit (shen ling personification of the Path-tao and the one deity Huang-lao (Yellow Elder), is embodied "from century to century" (shi shi in the guise of the greatest state mentors and spiritual leaders, including even the Buddha.

At the very beginning of the mythologized history, Lao-tzu appears as the Teacher of the law/dharma of the Mysterious Middle (Xuan-chung fa-shi under Fu-xi (XXX-XXIX centuries)-as the sun spirit Yu-hua-tzu under Shen-nun (XXIX - XXVII centuries)-as Lao-tzu of the Nine Souls (Tszyu-ling ah under Huang-di (XXVII-XXVI centuries) - as the founder of Taoist macrobiotics Guang-cheng-tzu, Lao-tzu himself was born between the XIV and VII centuries BC, creating the body of his mother-the " jade maiden "(yu nu Buddha: kanya-ratna - one of the seven treasure [qi bao ] of the king-chakravartin [Zhuang lun wang penetrated into her womb in the form of solar / male (yang ) energy accumulated in a five-colored pearl (symbol of the five elements / elements - wu xing or "heavenly pneuma" (Tian qi from the " big shooting star "(da Liu xing ) and stayed there 81/72 year, which corresponds to the division of the "Tao te Ching" as its sacred hypostasis into a numerologized (square 9 or product 9 and 8) number (81 or 72) paragraphs (zhang -space-time "patterns/symbols/patterns").

The cult of Lao Tzu probably began to take shape as early as the end of the third and beginning of the second centuries BC and was formed in the Han era by the second century. In 165, Emperor Huan-di (reigned 146-167) ordered him to make a sacrifice in his homeland in Ku County, and the next year he personally participated in such a sacrifice in his palace. The founder of the leading Taoist school of the path of right / true unity (Zheng-i-tao ), Zhang Tao-ling (Lin), reported the appearance of the divine Lao-tzu in the world in 142 or 145, who gave him the miraculous powers of the viceroy on earth. The "heavenly teachers" who headed this school (tian shi ) compiled their own religious commentary on the Tao te ching - Xiang Er zhu and established the worship of Lao-jun in the theocratic state they created in the late second and early third centuries.

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Sichuan province. In the era of the Six Dynasties (Liu-chao, 229-589), he became one of the Three most pure (San Qing - the highest Taoist deities ("heavenly venerable": The Beginning and origin - Yuan shi of Spirituality and jewelry - lin bao of the Way and grace - tao te and their abodes: the upper spheres (Jade and gold)). Holy Wisdom-yu, sheng of the Highest and True-shang, zheng of the Great and Immortal-tai, Hsien and the heavenly regions (Qing-wei Yu-yu Da-chi

The cult of Lao Tzu acquired a special scope during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), whose emperors bore the surname Li, revered him as their ancestor, erected idols for him, and even awarded the highest titles of "holy-wise" (sheng ) and "august emperor/first ancestor" (huang di). At the same time, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong (ruled in 712-756), his birthday was set on the 15th day of the second lunar month, which became the "feast of the Good" in 1118 during the Song Dynasty (960-1279)./True beginning" (Zheng/zhen yuan jie celebrated even now with a special rank as the most important all-Taoist celebration of the Heavenly Venerable Path and grace (Tao-te Tien-tsung is still worshipped in all Taoist temples, in his homeland in Lui there is an idol dedicated to him, and in popular beliefs he is considered the patron saint spellcasters, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, grinders and masters of making bowls and chopsticks.

There were also descriptions of his extraordinary appearance, the oldest and most authoritative of which was left by the Taoist philosopher and scholar Ge Hong (283/284-343/363) in "Bao-pu-tzu" ("[Treatise] 15) [Ge Hong, 1999, p. 245] and the hagiographies of Lao Tzu from the collection attributed to him "Shen hsien Zhuan "("Legends of the Immortal Saints") [Lao Tzu, vol. 1, 1959, p. 1-4; Ge Hong, 1980, pp. 87-92].

The spiritualized image was considered to be already nominally imprinted: his mother's nickname/surname with the epithet tzu ("son/teacher") - Lao-tzu (Old Child) - means being born a gray - haired old man; acquired (voluntarily adopted) surname (sin Li (Plum) - being born under a plum tree; name (ming Er (Ears) / Chun-er (Double ears) and nickname (zi Dan (Big and long ears / Protruding Tongue) - reflect the corresponding "amazing and wondrous" (jing guai ) facial features. These attributes, together with a tall stature (9 chi, i.e. more than 2 m), golden yellowness (imperial color) of the skin, a bulge on the crown, a square mouth, thick lips, large eyes, long eyebrows and a wide forehead, as well as attributes: the Mantic symbols " Zhou Yi "("Zhou Yi")./All-encompassing changes") / "I Ching" ("Canon of Changes") - gua (tri-, hexagrams), the Great Limit (tai chi ) and the black bull/ox/buffalo, on which he rode to the west (to paradise land), were included in his standard iconography.

These properties seem to echo the original, very Buddha-like idea of Lao Tzu's foreign (southwestern) origin: in the southwest is his homeland of Chu or Chen, where he apparently went at the end of his life, according to Sima Qian, and where, due to the intermediate geographical location and specific culture, there were many people living in China. the most powerful Indo-Buddhist influences, as well as the country/people of dan-er - "lop-eared", i.e. stretching the ears to the shoulders and making large holes in the lobes (see: [Zhou Qu-fei, 2001, p. 287]), whose name consists of his names (Dan and Er). The oldest mention of dan-er in the "Shan hai jing" ("Canon of mountains and seas", W-N centuries BC, ch. / tsz. 17) [Catalog of mountains and seas..., 2004, p. 156, 159] is accompanied by a mysterious phrase that their tzu ("son / teacher") was located in the state of niu-li indicated by the hieroglyphs" bull/ox/buffalo "(niu and " black "(li ) which together indicate the characteristic attribute of Lao Tzu, thereby solving the riddle and revealing the mysterious Tzu in it. A clarifying hint of Buddhism seems to be the name of Lao Tzu's native county, in both Varian-

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tah coinciding with the fundamental Buddhist category: ku-dukha (suffering), xiang-lakshana (sign/manifestation). A special bulge on the crown of the head, opposite to the crater-like concavity of Confucius [Spiritual Culture of China, vol. 1, 2006, pp. 57-60], is similar to the Indian ushnisha - one of the 32 mahapurushalakshan, " signs of a great man "(universal, sacred, charismatic king-chakravartin and Buddha) [Sutra on thirty-two..., 2001, pp. 171-182], in addition to which Lao Tzu, like Buddha, is characterized by birth from the left side (under the arm) of the mother, golden-yellow skin color, wide and long tongue, huge ears with elongated lobes and 8 sacred signs or / and a symbolic circle on the feet: the first - 8 trigrams (ba gua standard placed around the circle, the second - 8 precious / annunciation symbols (ashtamangala-ba bao hui or wheel - chakra with a thousand spokes (Lun Xiang

Moreover, the pictorial canon and iconography of the Buddha reveal the secrets of Lao Tzu's appearance. In particular, his strange name Chun-er - Double ears (Lao Tzu, vol. 1, 1959, p. 1) is easily deciphered when looking at the widespread image of the Buddha with holes and elongated lobes as long as the entire shell of the ear (lun do [Spiritual Culture of China, vol. 2, 2007, p. 392, color tab, fig. 23, 27, 30], and the combination of both, in turn, clarifies the phenomenon of Confucius ' double ears in the portrait of the Ming era (1368-1644) [ibid., color tab, Fig. 10], when it became the most popular the concept of the unity of the" three teachings " (San chiao ) suggested, if not unity, then similarity of their founders - Lao Tzu, Buddha and Confucius. Quite a mysterious report from the same source [Lao Tzu, vol. 1, 1959, p. 2] that Lao Tzu "has on his forehead the all-pervading principle of [universal] threefold and fivefold" (e yu san wu da li abbreviated in Bao-pu tzu as the "triple principle" (San li yi, erroneously interpreted as "three vertical wrinkles" [Ge Hong, 1999, p. 245], obviously implies another of the 32 signs of the Buddha - the urn (skt. "wool," Kit.: yu / guang/bai hao -jade/light-bearing / white hair), located between his eyebrows and emitting all-pervading light (for the" principle", see [Spiritual Culture of China, vol. 1, 2006, pp. 295-297], on "threefold and fivefold" [ibid., vol. 5, 2009, pp. 803-825]).

The striking similarity of Lao Tzu to the Buddha ceases to seem so strange if we take into account that, as A. Maspero showed in the pre-war period, Buddhism began its penetration into China as a Taoist sect that revered Lao Tzu, and it was in this form that it managed to gain a foothold there [Maspero, 2007, p. 224 - 225]. Chronologically and, obviously, logically, the process of deification of Lao Tzu coincided with the development of Buddhist religiosity. Emperor Huang di, who initiated the sacrifices to Lao Tzu, also performed them to the Buddha, praying for longevity. Moreover, " if relations with India were severed after the Han era, Buddhism would probably continue to develop as a Taoist sect and be absorbed into Taoism." But even though the relationship did not break off, "the mixing did not stop completely - while the Buddhists got rid of its consequences quite quickly, the Taoists did not abandon it; they remained convinced of the deep identity of the two religions for a long time" and "even" found out " its origins and told a fable about personal kinship ties between Buddha and Lao Tzu" [ibid., pp. 225-226].

Summing up, we can formulate a hypothesis about the implementation of the Taoists of the conceptual revolution of the historical sequence. From the fourth and third centuries BC to the fourth and third centuries AD, the image of Lao Tzu underwent a process resembling the development of photographic film. At first, due to the lack of reliable information about the Buddha in China, his features were blurred and mystified in the form of a mysterious foreigner, paradoxical in his statements and even in his oxymoronic name - " Chernobyl/black-headed / black-headed Old Child from a southwestern country

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lop-eared". Then, since the turn of our era, when more reliable information about Buddhism was received, the portrait of its founder began to appear more clearly through the image of Lao Tzu, whose adherents responded with the theory of prehistoric existence and the "eternal return" of their patriarch, in fact also inspired by the Indian idea of reincarnation. Well aware of the dangerous similarity of the "two ancestors" (er shi ), which is fraught with clarifying the true historical circumstances, the Taoists developed the doctrine of Lao Tzu as a mentor and even a father or mystical prototype of the Buddha, who became known as the "yellow-faced (Huang mian Lao Tzu). Such views are reflected in a wide variety of semi-folklore-semi-hagiographic works, including special treatises - "Ba shi and hua tu" ("Images of the 81st Transformation") and " Lao Tzu hua hu ching "("Canon of Lao Tzu transforming Barbarians"), which Kublai (1215 - 1294) in order to please the Buddhists, he was sentenced to be burned by decrees of 1258, 1261, 1281. Together with the well-known striking synchronicity of both traditional (VII-V centuries BC) and modern (V-IV centuries BC) dating of the life of Lao Tzu and Buddha, the above evidence fits well into the old hypothesis [Vasiliev V. P., 2002; Vasiliev L. S., 1982; Vasiliev L. S., 1989, p. 181-197] on the Indo-Buddhist influence on the author of the Tao te Ching and suggest that in the images of the two greatest teachers of humanity, according to K. Jaspers (1957), there is not only a historical or typological "coincidence of two in one" (he er er and ), but also a genetic " bifurcation of the one"(and Feng Wei er

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