Names
Laozi is an honorific title. Lao (老) means "venerable" or "old", such as modern Mandarin laoshi (老师), "teacher". Zi (子), Wade-Giles transliteration tzu, in this context is typically translated "master". Zi was used in ancient China as an honorific suffix, indicating "Master", or "Sir". In popular biographies, Laozi's given name was Er, his surname was Li (forming Li Er, 李耳) and his courtesy name was Boiang. Dan is a posthumous name given to Laozi, and he is sometimes referred to as Li Dan (李聃).
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Famous quotes containing the word names:
“Men have sometimes exchanged names with their friends, as if they would signify that in their friend each loved his own soul.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In a time of confusion and rapid change like the present, when terms are continually turning inside out and the names of things hardly keep their meaning from day to day, it’s not possible to write two honest paragraphs without stopping to take crossbearings on every one of the abstractions that were so well ranged in ornate marble niches in the minds of our fathers.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“Shut out that stealing moon,
She wears too much the guise she wore
Before our lutes were strewn
With years-deep dust, and names we read
On a white stone were hewn.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)