The Liezi, or Book of Master Lie, is a classical Daoist philosophical text traditionally attributed to Lie Yukou, a figure of uncertain historicity referenced in the Zhuangzi, though the received text as it survives was compiled and edited considerably later, likely in the early medieval period. Alongside the Tao Te Ching and the Zhuangzi, it is regarded as one of the three foundational texts of philosophical Daoism, known for its parables on fatalism, spontaneity and the limits of ordinary perception, including the well known story of the Foolish Old Man who moved a mountain.
Facts
Disputed
Attributed Author / CompilerTraditionally attributed to Lie Yukou; the received text's date and compilation are debated among scholars 1 The Liezi, the Book of Master Lie, is traditionally attributed to the Warring States period figure Liezi, but the received text is widely held in modern scholarship to be a later compilation rather than the direct work of a single author from that period. The Encyclopedia of Taoism, edited by Fabrizio Pregadio (Routledge, 2008), the standard scholarly reference on Daoism covering its texts, schools and history from antiquity to the present, records the text's disputed compilation history. The method is philological and historical, comparing the Liezi's language, its citation of and by other datable texts, and its philosophical content against the Warring States corpus it claims kinship with, since a text transmitted and edited across a long period accumulates the vocabulary and concerns of its later editors alongside older material it preserves. Because the received Liezi shows this layered composition rather than the unity expected of a single author, the identity and period of whoever gave the text its present form remains open, distinct from the legendary figure it is named for. Manuscript TraditionAttributed to the semi-legendary Lie Yukou, but the received text is widely dated by scholars to the third or fourth century CE, compiled and supplemented well after any historical Liezi could have lived. 2Tradition: The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang The Taoist Canon treats the text's attribution to Lie Yukou as a traditional ascription rather than a settled authorship fact; scholarly dating of the received compilation is centuries later than the attributed figure's own era. Origins
Composition NoteThe received text took its present form in the fourth century CE, when the scholar Zhang Zhan gathered, arranged and annotated older Daoist material into the thirty two chapters that survive today, a redaction later scholarship credits with much of the text's final shape. 1 Text
Literary FormText collection / anthology 1Tradition: The Encyclopedia of Taoism Scholarship and Forensics
Scholarly NoteBecause several passages parallel ideas found in early Chinese Buddhist writing, modern scholars read the work as a composite assembled well after the Warring States period its traditional attribution implies, rather than as a single author's product from the time of Confucius and Mencius. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
One of the three foundational texts of philosophical Daoism, alongside the Tao Te Ching and the Zhuangzi.
This source names Zhuangzi directly: "historicity referenced in the Zhuangzi, though the received text as it survives was compiled and edited considerably later, likely in the early medieval period."
Related To
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.