Where is Lao Tzu’s hometown recognized by the state?

The country has not identified the specific location of Laozi’s hometown.

Due to the long history and lack of historical data, the location of Laozi’s hometown has always been controversial. One theory is that Laozi’s hometown is located in Taiqinggong Town, Luyi County, Henan Province, and another theory is that it is located in Zhengdian Village, Woyang County, Anhui Province. Woyang, Anhui and Luyi, Henan, live on both sides of the Wohe River, the birthplace of Taoist culture. The straight-line distance between the two places is only 80 kilometers.

Sima Qian's "Historical Records·Han Fei's Biography of Laozi" is the earliest and most authoritative record of Laozi: "Laozi was a native of Qurenli, Lixiang, Chuku County." According to today's parlance, Laozi was from Luyi A native of Taiqinggong Town, County. This issue, which was originally not a problem, sparked a debate about the ownership of Lao Tzu's hometown in the early 1990s, which has continued to escalate.

The dispute between Luyi and Woyang counties began in 1990. In June of this year, Ma Bingwen from the Chinese Taoist College in Taipei came to visit the Taiqing Palace in Luyi. After returning, Ma Bingwen wrote to Zhang Jingzhi, president of the Luyi Laozi Society, saying that the existing buildings such as Laojun Terrace and Taiqing Palace had been abandoned for a long time, and he wanted to initiate a fundraiser for repairs.

On November 17 of the same year, Ma Bingwen wrote in a letter to Zhang Jingzhi that after his investigation, there was more evidence that I was born in Guoyang than in Luyi. In the end, more than 1 million US dollars was donated to Guoyang. The two counties thus began a protracted dispute over "Laozi's hometown".

Laozi’s influence on the world

Laozi’s works and thoughts have become valuable assets of the world’s historical and cultural heritage. The influence of Laozi's thoughts is not only unmatched within Taoism, but also has far-reaching influence outside Taoism.

Its influence not only includes philosophy, religion, politics, economics, sociology, aesthetics, ethics, literature and art, psychology, education, logic, rhetoric and other disciplines, but also involves medicine, Health care, qigong, military, management, construction, gardening and many other fields. According to incomplete statistics from the Yuan Dynasty, since the pre-Qin Dynasty, there were more than 3,000 kinds of research and annotation of old works by the Yuan Dynasty.