Although Laozi went to the Western Heaven and didn't know what to do, Laozi's books were widely circulated in the Western Heaven in later generations. According to the statistics of western scholars, since 18 16, there have been more than 250 versions of Tao Te Ching in various western languages, and now one or two new versions are published almost every year. According to the statistics of UNESCO, Tao Te Ching ranks second among the world cultural masterpieces translated into foreign languages with the largest circulation, second only to the Bible. Of course, westerners are obsessed with Laozi and have their own needs and love. For example, von blanchard's book Laozi's Tao Te Ching: The Way of Virtue says that Laozi, like the Christian God, has the spirit of fraternity and tolerance; Julius Greer, a Protestant theologian, listed 80 similarities between the Tao Te Ching and the New Testament. French scholar Abel Remy said that there are three Chinese characters "Yahweh" in Chapter 14 of Laozi. According to the strict logic system of German idealism, the annotated edition of Laozi by German Savon Straw reconstructed the structure diagram of 5,000 words. Another German scholar used the mode of Gestalt Psychology to interpret Laozi. Frank Lloyd Wright deduced the principle that the space in a building is as important as the space of a bricklayer from Laozi's "When it has nothing". Capra's The Way of Physics also points out that modern western physics is similar to the eastern mysticism in Laozi. In addition, there are metaphors of "woman" and "mother" in Laozi, which also aroused the interest of western feminists. People who practice qigong or judo, practitioners of traditional medicine, environmentalists, pacifists, businessmen who seek business ideas from Laozi, and postmodernists who want to dispel modernity all claim to find spiritual nourishment and inspiration from Laozi. Even the Russian writer Tolstoy used his theory of "not resisting evil" to interpret Laozi's inaction and regarded Laozi as his own cognate. Yang Xingshun of the former Soviet Union thinks that "nothing" in Lao Zi is not "nothing" but "nothing", that is, the poor and the proletarians. He described Laozi as a revolutionary manifesto. It can be seen that the book Laozi is really influential in the west.

There are many reasons for this kind of enduring Laozi fever and various Laozi views in western society. On the one hand, 1973 silk script unearthed from the No.3 Han Tomb in Mawangdui, Changsha, 1993 two versions and bamboo slips of Laozi unearthed from an ancient tomb in Guodian Village, Jingmen, Hubei, undoubtedly aroused the enthusiasm of westerners to study Laozi. On the other hand, the book "The Way of Westerners-Westernization of Taoist Thought" by Clark, a contemporary British sinologist and philosopher, attributed the popularity of Taoist thought in the West to three changes in the way of thinking of westerners: they want to live a better life, but they want to be liberated from the shackles of traditional religious dogma; Overcome the dualism of body and mind and achieve a complete life; We need to look at contemporary thoughts from a broader perspective. What should not be ignored here is Laozi himself: First, Laozi is concise and rich in philosophy. Although there are only "5,000 words"-I am afraid that the number of words is not enough to evaluate a philosophy assistant today, it condenses a lot of life wisdom and wisdom of this oriental old man. His poetic philosophical discourse expression is often obscure, but meaningful, which is infinite to future generations. Secondly, and most importantly, Laozi's spiritual trait is to oppose the alienation of civilization. His thoughts of doing nothing naturally, discarding the false and preserving the true, being contented with happiness, and being gentle and obedient to women are naturally recognized by more and more people in the western society with highly developed civilization and increasingly obvious negative problems.

Laozi's seclusion in the west is very different from Laozi's popularity in the west, but there is the same reason, that is, opposing the alienation of civilization. It seems that thinkers in history often have different karma with their own thoughts. Rise and fall replace waste, and everything varies from time to time.