A scholar in Beijing writes the name in two characters that have not changed in two thousand years. A translator in London renders it as “Lao Tzu,” and a reader in New York sees “Laozi,” and neither is wrong, but they are not quite the same either. Laozi and Lao Tzu are the same historical figure, the same text, and the same philosophical tradition — the difference is only which romanization system transcribed the Chinese characters into the Latin alphabet. The Wade-Giles system gave us “Lao Tzu.” The pinyin system, now standard, gives us “Laozi.” The man himself, if he existed as a single man, would recognize neither.
The two spellings have become a quiet fault line in Western esoteric literature. Older translations, especially those from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, use “Lao Tzu.” Contemporary scholarship, Chinese government publications, and most modern editions use “Laozi.” A reader encountering both may reasonably wonder whether they are looking at two different sages, two competing traditions, or a typographical error. They are looking at the same thing through two different alphabets.
Who Was Laozi (or Lao Tzu)?
The figure known as Laozi (老子, “Old Master”) is the reputed author of the Tao Te Ching (also Dao De Jing), a text of eighty-one short chapters that forms the foundational scripture of philosophical Taoism. The name is a title, not a birth name. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), compiled by Sima Qian around 94 BCE, identifies him as Li Er, a native of the state of Chu, and a contemporary of Confucius (551–479 BCE). Sima Qian reports that Laozi served as the archivist of the Zhou court, that Confucius visited him for instruction, and that Laozi eventually departed westward through the Han Gu Pass, where the gatekeeper Yin Xi asked him to write down his teachings. The result was the Tao Te Ching in five thousand characters.
The Shiji account is the earliest surviving biography, and it is already uncertain. Sima Qian himself notes that some sources placed Laozi two centuries later, and that another figure named Lao Laizi may have been the same person. Modern scholarship is divided. Some historians treat Laozi as a composite figure, a name attached to a text that accumulated over generations. Others accept the broad outline of the Shiji account while acknowledging that the details are legendary. The text itself, dated through linguistic analysis to roughly the fourth century BCE, may predate any single author.
What matters for the practitioner is this: the name refers to a body of teachings, a literary persona, and a tradition of commentary that has shaped Chinese thought for two and a half millennia. Whether one man wrote the Tao Te Ching or many did, the figure of the Old Master remains the same.
Wade-Giles vs Pinyin: What Changed and Why
The two spellings are products of two different attempts to represent Chinese sounds in the Latin alphabet. Wade-Giles, developed by Thomas Wade in the mid-nineteenth century and refined by Herbert Giles in 1912, was the standard romanization for English-language scholarship until the late twentieth century. Pinyin, developed by the People’s Republic of China in the 1950s and adopted by the International Organization for Standardization in 1982, is now the global standard.
The difference is mechanical. In Wade-Giles, the character 老 (old) is romanized as “lao,” and 子 (master) as “tzu,” giving “Lao Tzu.” In pinyin, the same characters are “lao” and “zi,” giving “Laozi.” The “tz” in Wade-Giles represents the same unaspirated affricate that pinyin writes as “z.” The pronunciation is identical. The “T” in “Tzu” is capitalized because Wade-Giles treated the surname as a single unit; pinyin lowercases the given name and writes the surname first.
The shift from Wade-Giles to pinyin was not merely academic. It reflected a political and cultural change: the PRC’s effort to standardize its own language for international use, and the gradual acceptance of that standard by Western institutions. By the 1990s, most universities and publishers had adopted pinyin. Older libraries still catalog under Wade-Giles. A reader searching for “Lao Tzu” in a database built after 2000 will find fewer results than a search for “Laozi,” but the older spelling persists in reprints, in popular culture, and in the titles of classic translations like Arthur Waley’s The Way and Its Power (1934) and James Legge’s The Tao Te Ching (1891).
How the Two Spellings Appear in Esoteric and Occult Literature
Western esoteric traditions encountered the Tao Te Ching through Wade-Giles translations. The Theosophical Society, which popularized Eastern texts among occultists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, used “Lao Tzu” in its publications. Helena Blavatsky cited the Tao Te Ching in The Secret Doctrine (1888) under that spelling. Aleister Crowley referenced Lao Tzu in his commentaries, again under Wade-Giles. The older spelling became the default for an entire generation of Western occult readers.
Contemporary esoteric literature is split. Academic occult studies, following the scholarly consensus, use “Laozi.” Popular and self-published works often retain “Lao Tzu,” partly because the older spelling carries a sense of tradition and partly because the most widely owned English translation — Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English’s 1972 edition — uses “Lao Tsu” (a variant of Wade-Giles). A practitioner who learned from that translation will naturally write “Lao Tsu” or “Lao Tzu” for the rest of their life.
The split creates a practical problem for reference works. A reader who knows only “Lao Tzu” may fail to find “Laozi” in a search index, and vice versa. The solution is to treat both as valid entries, with a cross-reference. This article is itself a cross-reference.
Symbolism of the Name Itself
The name “Laozi” carries symbolic weight that the romanization obscures. The character 老 (lao) means old, ancient, or venerable. The character 子 (zi) means master, child, or sage, the same character appears in the names of Confucius (Kongzi) and Mencius (Mengzi). Together they mean “Old Master,” a title that evokes both age and authority, both the accumulated wisdom of years and the simplicity of a child.
In Taoist iconography, Laozi is often depicted as an old man with a long white beard, riding a water buffalo toward the western pass. The image is not merely decorative. It encodes the central teaching of the Tao Te Ching: the sage who withdraws, who does not force, who moves with the natural flow of things. The water buffalo is slow, patient, and strong. The western pass is the boundary between the known and the unknown. The old man carries no sword, no staff, no book, only the unwritten teaching that he will leave behind at the gate.
The name itself, then, is a teaching. The Old Master is not young, not striving, not accumulating. He is what remains when ambition has fallen away.
Common Misconceptions About the Two Names
Misconception one: “Lao Tzu” and “Laozi” are different people. They are not. The difference is entirely orthographic. A reader who encounters both in the same bibliography should assume the same figure unless the text specifies otherwise.
Misconception two: “Lao Tzu” is the correct spelling and “Laozi” is a modern corruption. Neither is more correct. Wade-Giles was the standard for English-language scholarship for roughly a century. Pinyin is the standard now. Both are approximations of Chinese sounds using Latin letters. The Chinese characters themselves have not changed.
Misconception three: The Tao Te Ching is the only text attributed to Laozi. Taoist tradition attributes several other works to him, including the Hua Hu Jing (Scripture of Converting the Barbarians), which claims that Laozi traveled to India and became the Buddha. Most scholars treat this text as a later Taoist polemic against Buddhism, dating to the fourth century CE. The Tao Te Ching remains the only text with a credible claim to his authorship.
Misconception four: Laozi founded Taoism. Taoism as an organized religion emerged centuries after the Tao Te Ching was written. The text itself does not describe rituals, temples, or clergy. It is a philosophical poem, not a religious manual. Later Taoist traditions claimed Laozi as their founder and deified him as the embodiment of the Tao itself, but the historical figure, if there was one, was a philosopher, not a priest.
FAQ
Is Laozi the same as Lao Tzu? Yes. They are the same figure. The difference is only the romanization system: Wade-Giles (Lao Tzu) versus pinyin (Laozi).
Which spelling should I use? Use “Laozi” for contemporary academic or Chinese-language contexts. Use “Lao Tzu” when referring to older translations or works that use Wade-Giles. Either is acceptable in general writing.
Did Laozi actually exist? Historians disagree. The earliest biography, from 94 BCE, treats him as a historical figure, but the details are legendary. Some scholars treat him as a composite figure representing a school of thought rather than a single author.
What is the Tao Te Ching? It is an eighty-one-chapter text attributed to Laozi, the foundational scripture of philosophical Taoism. The title means “The Classic of the Way and Its Power.”
Why do some translations spell it “Lao Tsu”? “Lao Tsu” is a variant of Wade-Giles romanization, used notably in the Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English translation (1972). It represents the same pronunciation as “Lao Tzu” and “Laozi.”
Closing
The name you use, Laozi, Lao Tzu, Lao Tsu, tells a reader which translation you read, which era you learned in, which library you first opened. But the figure behind the name does not change. The Old Master remains what he always was: the one who wrote nothing until the gatekeeper asked, and then wrote five thousand characters that have not stopped being read. For a deeper look at the traditions that grew from that text, see our guide to Vedic and Chinese astrology, which traces the parallel currents of Eastern cosmological thought. For the symbols that appear in the Tao Te Ching and later Taoist practice, consult the glossary of Taoist symbols. And for the relationship between the Tao Te Ching and other foundational esoteric texts, read our guide to Taoist alchemy and inner cultivation.