Liezi c. 450 BC – c. 375 BC

Liezi, also known as Lie Yukou, was a Chinese Taoist philosopher of the fifth century BC, traditionally regarded as one of the three foundational thinkers of philosophical Taoism alongside Lao Tzu and Zhuangzi. The text that bears his name, the Liezi, is a collection of Taoist parables, anecdotes, and short philosophical dialogues, surviving in a redaction probably compiled in the third or fourth century AD. The text develops Taoist themes of spontaneity, the limits of knowledge, the relativity of moral and conventional categories, and the cultivation of stillness. The historicity of Liezi as an individual figure is debated; modern scholars treat him as either a partly legendary figure or as a composite name for a school of Taoist thought. His influence on later Chinese philosophy, religion, and literature has been substantial.