The great Han-dynasty historian Sima Qian described him as a "hermit sage," and the 20th-century scholar Feng Yu-lan has also stressed the view of Laozi as a hermit in A History of Chinese Philosophy.
漢代司馬遷說他是「隱君子」，今人馮友蘭在《中國哲學史》裡也強調他是隱者。