Laozi

Tao Te Ching

Name: Tao Te Ching
Author: Laozi

Philosophy and Wisdom

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Language: English
First published: 1891
Reading time: 46 minutes
Chapters: 81 chapters
Translator: James Legge (1815–1897)

About this book

A little book of eighty-one short chapters, many only a few lines long, that has shaped Chinese thought for more than two thousand years.

It speaks of the Tao, the Way that runs through all things but cannot be named, and of the sage who leads by yielding, acts without forcing and knows when to stop. Water, soft yet strong enough to wear away stone, is one of its favourite images. This is James Legge's careful translation of 1891, with his own explanatory words in brackets where the Chinese is very terse. Read a chapter or two at a time and come back often.

Original work: Written in Chinese; traditionally dated to the 6th century BC, probably compiled by the 4th century BC

1\. The Tao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.

Chapter 1.

About this edition

Source
Project Gutenberg (eBook #216)
Text version
James Legge's translation (first published 1891 in The Sacred Books of the East), from Project Gutenberg eBook #216 (updated 11 May 2015), downloaded 7 November 2026. The file has Legge's translation only, without his introduction or notes. The title page and the two part headings were not imported, and each chapter number is shown as a chapter heading; the 81 chapters are unchanged.
Category
Philosophy and Wisdom
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