Daoist sage Lie Yukou declined grain from minister Ziyang, foreseeing peril from political favor gained via others’ words. Later Ziyang was killed in a revolt, leaving Liezi unharmed. He lived in seclusion and authored the classic Daoist work Liezi.
Liezi’s master, the Old Merchant, taught him to transcend right-wrong and profit-loss over seven years. Impatient student Yin Sheng left resentful after getting no lessons. Liezi chides him that profound Daoist attainment demands long inner purification, not instant mastery.
Daoist master Huqiu Zilin teaches Liezi that true travel lies in inner reflection instead of chasing outer scenery. Enlightened, Liezi abandons wandering and lives in quiet seclusion for forty years to seek inner self-sufficiency.
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),…
– by Lie Yukou (Liezi) Mount Taihang and Mount Wangwu spanned seven hundred li in area and rose ten thousand ‘ren’ high. Originally, they stood south of Jizhou and north of Heyang. To the north of these mountains lived an old man known as “Foolish Old Man of the North Mountain.” He was nearly…