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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",{{sfnp|Watson|1968|p=8}}<ref name=Kohn4>{{Harvp|Chan|2000|p=4}}</ref> with an author being invented afterwards.{{sfnp|Lewis|1999|p=61}} The book's conspicuous absence of a central Master figure place it in marked contrast with nearly all other early Chinese philosophical works.{{sfnp|Denecke|2011|pp=208, 212–213}}{{sfnp|Lewis|1999|p=91}}
{{Asof|2023}}, the oldest textmanuscript containing quotestext 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'' hadwas notstill yet emerged asundergoing arevisions distinctand workmodifications.{{sfnp|Shaughnessy|2005}} 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.<ref name="stanford">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Laozi | last= Chan | first = Alan | orig-date= 2001 | editor1 = Edward N. Zalta | editor2= Uri Nodelman | display-editors= etal |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/laozi/ |encyclopedia=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] |publisher=Stanford University Department of Philosophy |year=2018 |quote=The discovery of two ''Laozi'' silk manuscripts at Mawangdui, near Changsha, Hunan province in 1973 marks an important milestone in modern ''Laozi'' research. The manuscripts, identified simply as 'A' (jia) and 'B' (yi), were found in a tomb that was sealed in 168 BC. The texts themselves can be dated earlier, the 'A' manuscript being the older of the two, copied in all likelihood before 195 BC.<br />"Until recently, the Mawangdui manuscripts have held the pride of place as the oldest extant manuscripts of the ''Laozi''. In late 1993, the excavation of a tomb (identified as M1) in Guodian, Jingmen city, [[Hubei]], has yielded among other things some 800 bamboo slips, of which 730 are inscribed, containing over 13,000 Chinese characters. Some of these, amounting to about 2,000 characters, match the ''Laozi''. The tomb...is dated around 300 BC.}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{ cite book | last = Queen | publisher= Springer | editor= Paul R. Goldin | first= Sarah A. | chapter= Han Feizi and the Old Master: A Comparative Analysis and Translation of Han Feizi Chapter 20, "Jie Lao," and Chapter 21, "Yu Lao" | series= Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy |pages= 197–256 | date= 2013 | title= Dao Companion to the Philosophy of Han Fei | isbn = 978-94-007-4317-5 | doi = 10.1007/978-94-007-4318-2_10}}</ref>
=== Traditional accounts ===
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