Lie Yukou was a representative figure of Daoism in the early Warring States period. He is also known as Yu Kou, Yu Kou, or Liezi. Traditionally believed to be from the state of Zheng (in present-day Zhengzhou, Henan) during the Warring States era, he advocated the principles of emptiness, stillness, and non-action (wu wei), and his philosophical views closely aligned with Huang-Lao Daoism.
In 742 CE, during the first year of the Tianbao era under Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty, he was posthumously honored with the title “Chongxu Zhenren” (“Perfected Person of Profound Emptiness”).
The Zhuangzi records that Lie Yukou could ride the wind and travel effortlessly through the air. The Book of Han: Treatise on Literature lists Liezi in eight chapters, which includes enduring fables such as “The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains” and “The Man of Qi Who Worried the Sky Might Fall.”
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