Skip to main content

Secondary sourcePainting

Representation of Laozi

A later ink drawing of an elderly bearded man in flowing robes, identified as Laozi though its date and maker are unknown.

This later drawing represents the enduring image of Laozi as a wise elderly sage.

Ask Laozi about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Black-and-white ink drawing of an elderly bearded man with a long white beard and a bald head, wearing loose flowing robes with a sash. He is seated with hands clasped in his sleeves, and a seal-like inscription appears at lower left.
Unknown artist, Representation of Laozi, undated.

About this source

What it is

This is a black-and-white ink drawing showing an elderly man with a long white beard and a bald head, dressed in loose robes, seated with his hands clasped in his sleeves. The record does not give a date or an artist's name, so this is a later representation rather than an image made during Laozi's lifetime.

Why it matters

Because no contemporary portraits of Laozi exist, images like this one shaped the popular idea of what he looked like: calm, old and wise. It shows how later artists imagined him rather than recording his actual appearance.

Look closer

  • What choices did the artist make to suggest wisdom and calm?
  • Why do you think so many images of Laozi show him as an old man?
  • What is missing from this image that a true portrait from his own time might have included?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Laozi on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Laozi sources

Meet the AI Laozi →
Photograph of a long vertical manuscript fragment with brown, degraded edges, written in black ink in columns of seal-script-style Chinese characters separated by faint red ruling lines. Light patches and damage are visible across the surface.Book

Secondary source

Tao Te Ching

Laozi · c. 4th-3rd century BCE

Partial view of a museum display of thin bamboo slips standing upright in a row, each with vertical Chinese characters. Printed black text on white panels in front of the slips reads in columns.Artifact

Primary source

Bamboo Texts of Guodian

c. 300 BCE

Photograph of a long, damaged strip of silk-like manuscript with rows of dark brown Chinese characters in vertical columns on a tan background, with numbered column labels below (15 上, 13 上, 11 上, 9 上, 7 上, 5 上, 3 上, 1 上). The strip is torn and fragmented, with a red seal mark near the lower right.Book

Primary source

Mawangdui Silk Texts of the Laozi

Anonymous Han scribes · c. 200-168 BCE

Photograph of a handwritten classical Chinese manuscript page in vertical columns of brush-written characters on aged paper, with a title line at the top right reading as a chapter heading from the Zhuangzi.Book

Secondary source

Zhuangzi

Zhuang Zhou · c. 300 BCE

Faded fresco on a tan plastered wall showing several robed figures standing in a row, painted in green, grey and black tones, with a blue painted band at the top. Part of the fresco is worn and discolored.Painting

Secondary source

Confucius and Laozi fresco, Dongping tomb

Anonymous Chinese painter of the Western Han period · Western Han period, c. 2000 years old

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Laozi now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions