Tradition places him in the 6th century BC · China

Lao Tzu

The quietest of the masters, and the one whose record asks the most care. Tradition makes Lao Tzu — the name means something like “Old Master” — an archivist of the Zhou court and an older contemporary of Confucius, and credits him with the Tao Te Ching. The historical record is thin, and the man may be as much legend as person. This house says so plainly rather than tidying it away: where a master’s record is uncertain, the uncertainty is part of the doorway.

His book

The Tao Te Ching: eighty-one short chapters of verse, among the most translated books in the world. It opens by warning against exactly what a book is — the Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name. Everything after that opening is an attempt to point without grasping.

His method

Paradox and reversal. Where the other masters press forward, Lao Tzu yields and watches what the yielding does. His teaching works by turning the expected thing over: the useful part of the pot is its emptiness; the hub of the wheel is its hole.

Wu wei — action without forcing. Not idleness: the art of doing what the situation does of itself, the way water finds the course. The sage governs, where he governs at all, by removing obstacles rather than issuing commands.

Softness over hardness. Water is his standing image: the softest thing, wearing down the hardest stone; the living thing is supple, the dead thing stiff. Yielding, in his teaching, is not defeat — it is how what lasts, lasts.

Knowing himself, overcoming himself. “He who knows other men is discerning; he who knows himself is intelligent. He who overcomes others is strong; he who overcomes himself is mighty.” Tao Te Ching 33, trans. James Legge

His room

His room is open — the quietest of the four. In this house every master gets his persona bible before he gets a room — positions anchored to the text, the moves that are his, and the deflections where the record runs out — and Lao Tzu’s stands on the Legge translation and the record as it stands, legend and all. His greeting plays above; the conversation itself is below.