Although the Chinese have always accorded the same status to hermits as they have to doers of great deeds, Chen Ku-ying argues that Laozi was not a hermit at all, and that the academic community has been mistaken all along on this point. Many people with failed ambitions for fame and fortune disguise their failure by claiming that they, like Laozi and Zhuangzi, have seen through the vanity of this world.
雖然隱士的生命型態在中國不輸給立大功業者，但陳鼓應認為，老子是隱士之說一誤千百年，已成了學界創造性的誤解。許多心在功利卻不得者，也要冒其名，稱「我與老莊一般逍遙自化！」