History and Eastern philosophy buffs scored big this past week when a book that appears to be by Lao Tsu’s girlfriend, Li Gu, was unearthed under a house in the Luyi County of the Henan Province, what would have formally been Ku County of the state of Chu.
Li Gu revealed many things about Tsu’s personality we’ve never known before. Most striking is additional text of famous Tsu quotes that were never published, which apparently Gu had a hand in shortening for accessibility.
For instance, one famous Lao Tsu quote is:
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Gu writes in her journal:
“Tsu was very talkative today. When I complained that I didn’t think I’d get to see as much of the world as I wanted, he told me ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and that step starts as soon as you get up from your chair, assuming you can get up, sometimes people are tired and don’t get enough sleep at night.’ I said ‘Lao Lao, enough. You had me at ‘single step.’ Jesus Christ (whoever that is), he can really talk sometimes.”
Gu also complained that Tsu didn’t always walk the walk. She writes:
“Lao asked me what I thought about this quote of his, ‘Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.’ I said it’s nice, but that does that mean you’re going to go down on me more often? He did what he always does: started playing with his runes.”
This is noteworthy for Eastern philosophy buffs as this shows a different side to Tsu than was previously known. While he is one of our great philosophers and writers on the human condition, he wasn’t always the best boyfriend.
On that note, perhaps Gu’s main complaint is that Tsu wouldn’t make plans, instead relying on the natural organic ‘way’ of things to point him in the right direction:
“Lao loves to say, ‘A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving’ whenever I ask him if he has anything planned for us this weekend. That’s a nice quote for the masses but I want to go apple picking and if you don’t get there early lines start to form. So of course I have to make the plan for the rickshaw, get the baskets, make sure Bai Xing’s farm is open, etc etc.”
The movie rights for the book, “Tsu Much” have been acquired by Universal. Morgan Freeman is said to be attached for the part of Tsu with Natalie Portman as Gu.
