續集古今佛道論衡 1.66

1.66

The Dharma Master asked, saying, 'In the reign of which king of Zhou and in what year was Laozi first born? In the reign of which king of Zhou and in what year did he travel west?' Jiang Bin said, 'In the third year of the accession of King Ding of Zhou, the year yimao, he was born on the night of the fourteenth day of the ninth month at the zi hour, in Quren Hamlet, Li Village, Ku County, Chen Commandery, in the state of Chu. In the fourth year of the accession of King Jian of Zhou, the year dingshou, he served Zhou as an archivist of the treasury. In the thirteenth year of the accession of King Jian of Zhou, the year bingxu, he was promoted to Grand Astrologer. In the first year of the accession of King Jing of Zhou, the year gengchen, when he was eighty-five years of age, seeing that the virtue of the Zhou had declined, he thereupon traveled west with Yin Xi, the magistrate of the San Pass, to convert the barbarians. This is sufficiently clear.'