Ren Jiyu (born 1916)

A graduate of the Beijing University Philosophy Department Liberal Arts Research Institute, Ren Jiyu has served as a professor at Beijing University, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences World Religions Research Institute and as a teacher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Graduate School over the course of a long and distinguished career. For decades absorbed in the study of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism, Ren is the author of a number of works on Chinese philosophy and religion including The History of Chinese Philosophy (in 4 volumes) and Collected Essays on Chinese Buddhism, and the chief editor of The History of Chinese Taoism, The History of Chinese Buddhism (in 8 volumes), A History of the Development of Chinese Philosophy (in 7 volumes), A Dictionary of Religion and Zhong Hua Da Zang Jing: The Complete Buddhist Canon (Chinese edition, 45 volumes published out of a planned 200-volume set).

The Taoist Classic, the Book of Lao Zi also known as Dao De Jing (The Way and Its Virtue), is said to have been written by Lao Zi in the late Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.). The book contains a wealth of dialectic thinking. It interprets the changes of all things in the universe with its Tao (the Way). It advocates contentment with the existing status quo and holding few desires and 'a return of human society to the primeval state characterized by a small nation and a sparse population. The philosophy propounded in The Book of Lao Zi occupies an important position in the history of Chinese thought, for it has influenced Chinese philosophers of the succeeding periods to varying degrees. Since the Han Dynasty, well over a thousand scholars have made annotations to the work, which is very unusual for ancient Chinese books. The book consists of eighty-one chapters, each of which is preceded by a synopsis of its content, and an index of themes.