老子

Lao Zi

老师提问：“道教的创始人是谁？”某人回答：“老子！”

Teacher asked：“Who is the founder of Taoism?” someone answered：“Lao Zl”

Noticing my tone when I said Lao Zi 老子， I accent the word “老”.

Let’s look at the Chinese words“老子”, there are two ways to read them, each pronunciation has its own meaning. When you read the words normally, they refer to the initiator of Taoism. Lao Zi is a famous chinese philosophor who founded Taoism in the 4^th-century. But when you accent the word “老”，“老子”is seemed to be an impolite word, it has two meanings,too. One can be father, for example, 我是你老子！I’m your father! The other refers to “I ”, 老子爱干啥干啥，不关你事儿, I do whatever I want, it’s none of your business.

Remember that, when you emphasize“老”，老子 is almost a dirty word, so I really hope you won’t need to use it.

                                                                     Hokey