section_path: Identity
section_name: Identity
paragraph_text: Identity
  
  By the mid-twentieth century, consensus had emerged among Western scholars that the historicity of a person known as Laozi is doubtful and that the Tao Te Ching is "a compilation of Taoist sayings by many hands", with an author being invented afterwards. The book's conspicuous absence of a central Master figure place it in marked contrast with nearly all other early Chinese philosophical works.
  
  As of 2023, the oldest manuscript containing text from the Tao Te Ching dates to the late 4th century BC, written on bamboo slips excavated as part of the Guodian Chu Slips. However, these are mixed in with quotes from other works, indicating that the Tao Te Ching was still undergoing revisions and modifications. The oldest manuscripts of the Tao Te Ching in a complete form by itself were discovered at a tomb in Mawangdui, and date to the early 2nd century BCE. Analysis of early commentary on passages that appear in the received Tao Te Ching supports an accretionary evolution for the text rather than a singular authorship event.