The Idea Of "Longevity" in Laozi’s Daode Jing
The Idea Of "Longevity" in Laozi’s Daode Jing

Summary/Abstract: The present study aims to establish the context in which the idea of “longevity”shou 壽 was used by Laozi 老子(6th century BC) in his work Daode jing 道德經 and to elucidate the differences attached to it by later exegetes and commentators with regard to the original meaning reflected by the text. At the same time it seeks to analyse the potential impact those interpretations had on the modern Chinese political culture. The study makes use of a multitude of textual materials, insufficiently engaged by the modern scholarship and provides novel angles of looking at the old problem represented by the relationship between the expansion of political power and the physical boundaries of human life. The results of the research show that the connotations given to the word “longevity” are multifold, not being confined or exclusively related to the one referring to the physical reality of the human lifespan, but encompassing also a more profound, cultural and political dimension.

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