The publisher's own title names Lao Tsu (Laozi) as the traditional author of the text the songs set; the cycle sets his words rather than dramatizing him as a figure, so the claim is associated rather than depicts.
Source 16 Songs from Tao Te Ching (Lao Tsu), Classical Vocal Reprints Catalogue Record (Phillip Schroeder)
This source names Laozi directly: "and its traditional author, Lao Tsu (Laozi)."
Source 16 Songs from Tao Te Ching (Lao Tsu), Classical Vocal Reprints Catalogue Record (Phillip Schroeder)
This source names Laozi directly: "receiving a revelation from a deified Laozi in 142 CE and began organizing followers in Sichuan into a structured religious community with its own priesthood, tithing system and register of the..."
Source Taoism: Growth of a ReligionIsabelle Robinet (trans. Phyllis Brooks)
This source names Laozi directly: "collection record for "Daoist immortal Laozi," a gilt copper alloy figure by the artist Chen Yanqing, active in the 15th century, dated by its own inscription to 1438."
Source Daoist Immortal Laozi, accession 1997.139 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
This source names Laozi directly: "Kou Qianzhi had claimed in 415 a revelation from Laozi commissioning him to purge the Celestial Masters tradition of hereditary and commercial abuses and reorganize it under a new code, the Yunzhong..."
Source Richard B. Mather, "K'ou Ch'ien-chih and the Taoist Theocracy at the Northern Wei Court, 425-451" (Facets of Taoism, Yale University Press, 1979)Richard B. Mather
This source names Laozi directly: "teaching of the Yellow Emperor and Laozi, used here as the primary institutional record of Taoism's formal elevation at Buddhism's expense."
Source Emperor Wuzong's Edict on the Suppression of Buddhism (Asia for Educators, Columbia University)Emperor Wuzong of Tang
This source names Laozi directly: "paying tribute at the shrine of Laozi."
Source First Council Meeting of the World Daoist Federation (Dao World)
This source names Laozi directly: "study tracing the deification of Laozi as Lord Lao across the history of Daoist religion, from his role as a sage philosopher in early texts to his standing as a major cosmic deity in later..."
Source God of the Dao: Lord Lao in History and MythLivia Kohn
Laozi, traditional author of the Tao Te Ching, stands at the head of the Taoist tradition.
Source Taoism: Growth of a ReligionIsabelle Robinet (trans. Phyllis Brooks)
This source names Laozi directly: "school, Tang dynasty emperors claiming Laozi as ancestor and granting Taoism official status, the Cultural Revolution's 1966 to 1976 destruction of temples and forced laicization of clergy, and..."
Source History of Taoism (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
This source names Laozi directly: "translation of the Guodian bamboo slip Laozi, the version of the text recovered from a tomb sealed around 300 BCE and excavated in 1993, the earliest physical witness to the Tao Te Ching known to..."
Source Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching: A Translation of the Startling New Documents Found at GuodianRobert G. Henricks
This source names Laozi directly: "A Wikipedia article on Laozi, the traditional founding figure of Daoism and putative author of the Tao Te Ching."
Source Laozi (Wikipedia)
This source names Laozi directly: "The Mawangdui silk manuscripts of the Laozi are two Han dynasty era manuscript copies of the Daodejing recovered from the Mawangdui tomb site in 1973, predating by centuries the received text long..."
Source Mawangdui silk manuscripts of the LaoziLaozi (attributed)
This source names Laozi directly: "from a 415 revelation claimed from Laozi through his reform of the Celestial Masters tradition to the 442 ceremony in which Emperor Taiwu personally received Taoist investiture, examining the..."
Source Richard B. Mather, "K'ou Ch'ien-chih and the Taoist Theocracy at the Northern Wei Court, 425-451" (Facets of Taoism, Yale University Press, 1979)Richard B. Mather
This source names Laozi directly: "biography, including its account of Laozi, which names three possible historical candidates for who Laozi actually was and explicitly concludes that the record cannot determine which, a rare case of..."
Source Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian)Sima Qian
This source names Laozi directly: "of Taoism, traditionally attributed to Laozi, whose historical existence and authorship remain genuinely uncertain among scholars."
Source Tao Te ChingLaozi (attributed)
This source names Laozi directly: "Legge's own commentary on the chapter reads it as Lao Tzu groping after the God of Christian theism, which tells you as much about Legge as about the text."
Source The Texts of Taoism, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 39)James Legge
This source names Laozi directly: "The ruling Li family claimed direct descent from Laozi, granting the faith official status across the empire, and Emperor Gaozong added the Tao Te Ching to the required classics of the imperial..."
Source History of Taoism (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
This source names Laozi directly: "honored as the birthplace of Laozi, with Daoist representatives from twenty eight countries and regions taking part."
Source First Council Meeting of the World Daoist Federation (Dao World)
This source names Laozi directly: "of officials, she studied the texts of Laozi and Zhuangzi from an early age, married against her wishes and raised two sons, and served for a time as a libationer, a priestly office, within the Way..."
Source The Encyclopedia of TaoismFabrizio Pregadio (ed.)
This source names Laozi directly: "Zhang Daoling reported that Laozi appeared to him in 142 CE in Sichuan and commanded him to found a religious community, the Way of the Celestial Masters, known popularly as the Five Pecks of Rice..."
Source History of Taoism (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors