Classic Books Library

Liezi

5th century BC

Lie Yukou, known as Liezi, is said to have been a recluse of the state of Zheng early in the Warring States period, living around the late fifth and early fourth centuries BC, a little before Zhuangzi. Content in poverty, he lived forty years in the wilds of Zheng unknown to anyone. When the chief minister of Zheng heard that he was poor and sent him grain, he bowed his thanks again and again but would not accept it. The Zhuangzi says that he could 'ride the wind and travel, cool and serene', and later Daoism honoured him as the 'Perfected Man of the Void'.

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