佛祖統紀 35.73

35.73

In the third year, on the fourteenth day of the ninth month, Laozi was born in Quren Hamlet, Li Village, Ku County, Chen Commandery, in Chu (Ku is pronounced ku; Li is pronounced lai). His surname was Li, his given name was Er, his courtesy name was Boyang, and his posthumous title was Dan (pronounced ta-gan; because his ears were broad and lacked rims, he was called Dan). He remained in his mother's womb for eighty-one years, and was born when her left flank split open. At birth his hair was already white, so he was called Laozi (the Old Child). He was born beneath a plum (li) tree, hence his surname was Li. He had a yellow complexion, fine eyebrows, long ears, large eyes, a nose with double ridges, and ears with three apertures (from the Shiji and the Shenxian zhuan). The Laozi neizhuan states: 'Laozi was born prior to Heaven. In the time of Fuxi, he was named Yuhuazi; in the time of Xuanyuan [the Yellow Emperor], he was named Guangchengzi. Down to Kings Wen and Wu of the Zhou, he served as the preceptor to twelve emperors in all.' Liu Xiang's Liexian zhuan of the Han and Huangfu Mi's Gaoshi zhuan of the Jin both record that he was born at the end of the Shang. Yin Wencao's Shengji of the Tang states: 'Laozi, descending from the Realm of Grand Purity, took conception in the Mysterious and Wondrous Jade Maiden. He remained in his mother's womb for eighty-one years, and descended to be born in the ninth year of the Shang emperor Gaozong. In the forty-third year, he mounted a white stag, ascended the courtyard cypress, and flew away into the heavens (the cypress is currently at the Taiqing Palace in Bozhou). In the twenty-first year of King Zhou of Shang, he descended onto Mount Qi.' The Shiben states: 'Under the Shang, he was the Keeper of the Archives; under the Zhou, he was the Scribe beneath the Pillar.' (King Wen of Zhou was the Western Earl and still served the Shang, so when he was the Keeper of the Archives, the dynasty was not yet called Zhou.) In the twenty-third year of King Zhao, Laozi drove a thin-planked chariot drawn by a blue ox and crossed Hangu Pass to the west, where he transmitted the Daode jing to the Gatekeeper Yinxi. In the twenty-fifth year, he again descended into the household of Li Taiguan in Shu. In the twenty-seventh year, he met Yinxi at the Blue Sheep Market in Chengdu. He went to the Western Regions to convert the barbarians, and having completed this, he ascended to heaven in Khotan. (The various descents and births cited in the esoteric biographies do not agree; they are appended here for reference.)