LIEH-TZU

flourished 4th century BC, , China Pinyin Liezi, original name (Wade-Giles) Lieh Yk'ou one of the three primary philosophers who developed the basic suppositions of Taoist thought, and the presumed author of the Taoist work Lieh-tzu. Many of the writings traditionally attributed to Lieh-tzu and included in the book bearing his name have been identified as later forgeries. This fact and the omission of Lieh-tzu's name in the biographical notices of the historian Ssu-ma Ch'ien in 100 BC have led many to consider Lieh-tzu a fictitious person. Most modern scholars, however, think that such a man did exist. Little is known of Lieh-tzu's life save the fact that, like his contemporaries, he had a large number of disciples and roamed through the different warring states into which China was then divided, advising kings and rulers. His work is distinguished stylistically by its wittiness and philosophically by its emphasis on determinism. Unlike the other two major Taoist philosophers, Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, Lieh-tzu taught that cause and effect, rather than fate, are primarily responsible for the condition of men. Pinyin Liezi, also called Ch'ung Hs Chih Te Chen Ching, Pinyin Chongxu Zhide Zhenjing (Chinese: True Classic of the Perfect Virtue of Simplicity and Emptiness) Chinese Taoist classic bearing the name of Lieh-tzu (q.v.). As in earlier Taoist classics (from which it borrowed heavily), emphasis in the Lieh-tzu centres on the mysterious Tao (Way) of Taoism, a great unknowable cosmic reality of incessant change to which human life should conform. In its present form, the Lieh-tzu possibly dates from the 3rd or 4th century AD. The Yang Chu chapter of the classic gives the Lieh-tzu a particular interest, for this chapternamed after a legendary figure of the 5th4th century BC, incorrectly identified as its authoracknowledges the futility of challenging the immutable and irresistible Tao; it concludes that all man can look forward to in this life is sex, music, physical beauty, and material abundance, and even these goals are not always satisfied. Such fatalism implies a life of radical self-interest (a new development in Taoism), according to which a person should not sacrifice so much as a single hair of his head for the benefit of others.