The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao;
The names that can be named are the not the eternal names.
It is from the Nameless that Heaven and Earth sprang,
While the named is the mother of the multitudes.
– Lao Tzu

The central figure of Taoism. According to tradition, he was supposed to have lived in the 6th century BC, around the same time as Confucius and the Buddha. It is he who supposedly wrote the Tao Te Ching (”The Book of the Way and (its) Virtue”), the text fundamental to Taoist thought. Lao Tzu means “Old Master”, so it is probably a title of honor rather than a personal name. Due to the difficulty in translating the sounds of Chinese to Roman characters, there are a variety of transliterations for his name, including Laozi, LÇŽozǐ, Lao Tse, Laotze, Lao Zi, etc.

Lao means “old”, and it has the same long “o” and “l” that mark the English old. In old, a wholesome, earthy energy expands to fill all available space, and culminates in a doorway (perhaps Death). In lao, the wholesome, earthy energy also expands to fill available space, but the energy is balanced and even, and there is no ending implied (although, to be fair, Chinese syllables have only three possible endings: -n, -ng, and nothing).

Similarly, tzu has the same “s”, “t” that master does. (Don’t be fooled by that “z” — the sound is almost the same as English “s”. Tzu is pronounced rather like “tseh”.) This “ts/st” indicates directed energy moving purposefully along a path. In master, this energy is balanced and even, and the implication is that the master is the source of the energy (”m”); while in tzu, the energy is connective and hard-working, and the tzu is not necessarily the source of the energy, but only its guide.

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