The Variation Of Text And Thought In The Writing Process Of "Lao-tzu"

The thought of "Taoist school" isn't originated by Lao-tzu; at least it had ripened into quietly maturity in the times in which Lao-tzu lived. It's purely that "Lao-tzu" hadn't formed systematic version and independent school. The thought of "Taoist school" just be scattered in many ancient books and records before Lao-tzu, and formed a trend of thought in that times. This trend of thought was the background and foundation reason of Lao-Tzu's formation. Lao-tzu spread the thought of "Taoist school" by communicating with friends and teaching, then his friends and students spread the thought again.When Lao-Tzu's discourse spread extensively, it started to form version. This process is later than the time in which "The Analects of Confucius" formed. It can be reached that "Lao-tzu" formed version under some help of Wenzi and Liezi, and it had different versions and thought in different areas, for example, Guodian" Lao-tzu" and the version which Zhuangzi could see had divergences. The school of Jixia" also studied another version.With the merger of some countries and partial union, many scattered version of "Lao-tzu" also moved towards gathering up. Promoted by "Jixia" school, it preliminary possessed a scale of five thousand words. Relying on this version, Hanfei wrote two theses about "Lao-tzu". The continuity of chapters in these two theses was similar with "Lao-tzu" which is current today. But there was still some difference. Highly praised by the ruler of Han dynasty and with prevailing of "Huanglao" school, it needed an integrated and stable version of "Lao-Tzu" to spread. "Lao-tzu" which was copied on silk was a representative. After many years, Wangbi annotated for "Lao-tzu", he must make use of it.This is the thread of formation of "Lao-tzu", there was always some intervene of scholars. Except above things, other scholars and the version of "Lao-tzu" just are unnecessary.