It isn't so much a race to find the oldest document, but rather a way to acknowledge the ancient giants on whose shoulders we stand. Citing all the way back to

It isn't so much a race to find the oldest document, but rather a way to acknowledge the ancient giants on whose shoulders we stand. Citing all the way back to Laozi is kind of a power-move, though. Done wrong, it seems silly and contrived. In this Nature article, it was well done and gave a broad facet of humanity to an otherwise-technical work.