bobgote said:
Its actually a philosophy book. but Ancient Chinese have been practicing ancesterial worship for thousand of years prior to Lao Zhi and hence when he died. ppl just married in and worship Lao zhi as a god himself, so its become folklore and folk religion with tales of god coming from all aspect of life and some keep adding new gods. Even when Sun Wukong(Journey to the west) is a fictional character, there are also temple worshipping him. Not to mention others like some turtle saving fishermen, loyal doggy, man saving tiger, etc etc. So its more superstituous and folklore.
fillial piety is very deep rooted in the chinese culture hence, anything they feel good can be worship. There are also temple of Confucius and even one for Jiang Kiashek in taiwan.
. In fact, you can even see an example in a similar event in Zen Buddhist history. Boddidharma, IIRC, came to a group of very learned monks, and simply raised a flower. All the monks discussed what it meant, while on Makyupska (sp) truly understood and simply smiled in response. Yet, we must also remember that his smile was not the "correct" answer either, as there is no correct answer and the comprehension is not repeateable by some study. Should a similar event happen ever again, who knows how understanding may be displayed? Generally, though, I do think a smile is a good idea and a nice response 
