Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s10.t1.2

v1.c7.s10.t1.2

The authorship and year of Book final completion have always been subject to controversy. Master Han Fei thought its author was Lao Zi (namely, Lao Dan) while historian Sima Qian suspiciously alleged the author was court historian Dan of the Warring States Period. Moreover, there's someone believes that the classic is actually the wills and teachings of from Lao Zi recorded and written down by Huan Yuan, a thinker in the Warring States Period, and someone even deduced that the classic might had been completed during the period between Qin and Han dynasties. However, this argument of the Book completion at the early Han Dynasty was refuted by the silk manuscript edition of The Book of Lao Zi unearthed from Tomb at Mawangdui of Changsha city, Hu'nan province in 1972. The prevalent view of majority scholars at the present tend to believe the Book might be completed in the Warring States Period, might not be later than the publication of Mencius and Zhuangzi, as it is evident by Lao Dan’s thought in the late Spring and Autumn Period contained in The Book of Laozi, with diction with literary style of the Warring States Period.