We cannot speak historically of Lao-zi as a person or as a mystic, but we may do so metaphorically. The Chinese have a custom of calling a book by the name of the author. We can speak of The Lao-zi to refer to the Dao De Jing. We will speak as if the authorship is known and the author's purpose and meaning is more or less clear. By definition, a paradox involves strange juxtapositions and affirmations of contradictions.
Paradoxical language proceeds without definitions or defines by violating simple rules of logic.
Esoteric language involves secret codes and meanings and is the favorite interpretive device of the actional Daoists. But it may be referred to as the Mother of all things. Yet the Sage knows ultimate reality and apprehends that which is not ordinary knowledge. And yet there is nothing better for attacking hard and strong things. He who knows the male and keeps to the female Becomes the ravine of the world.