Tao Te Ching

The Tao Te Ching (traditional Chinese: 道德經; simplified Chinese: 道德经) or Laozi is a Chinese classic text and foundational work of Taoism traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship, date of composition and date of compilation are debated. The oldest excavated portion dates to the late 4th century BC.

Tao Te Ching

Ink on silk manuscript of the Tao Te Ching – from Mawangdui (2nd century BC)
Author	Laozi (trad.)
Language	Classical Chinese
Subject	Philosophy
Publication date	4th century BC
Publication place	China
Published in English	1868
Original text	Tao Te Ching at Chinese Wikisource
Translation	Tao Te Ching at Wikisource
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	道德經
Simplified Chinese	道德经
Literal meaning	"Classic of the Way and Virtue"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Dào Dé Jīng Bopomofo ㄉㄠˋ   ㄉㄜˊ   ㄐㄧㄥ Wade–Giles Tao4 Tê2 Ching1 Yale Romanization Dàu Dé Jīng IPA [tâʊ tɤ̌ tɕíŋ] Wu Romanization Dau Teh Cin Hakka Romanization Tau4 Dêd5 Gin1 Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Douh Dāk Gīng Jyutping Dou6 Dak1 Ging1 IPA [tɔw˨ tɐk̚˥ kɪŋ˥] Southern Min Hokkien POJ Tō Tek Keng Tâi-lô Tō Tik King Middle Chinese Middle Chinese DɑuX Tək̚ Keŋ Old Chinese Baxter (1992) *luʔ tɨk keng Baxter–Sagart (2014) *[kə.l]ˤuʔ tˤək k-lˤeŋ
Alternative Chinese name
Chinese	老子
Literal meaning	"The Old Master"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Lǎozǐ Bopomofo ㄌㄠˇㄗˇ Wade–Giles Lao3 Tzŭ3 Yale Romanization Lǎudž IPA [lǎʊ tsɹ̩̀] Wu Suzhounese Lâ-tsỳ Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Lóuhjí Jyutping Lou5zi2 IPA [lɔw˩˧.tsi˧˥] Southern Min Hokkien POJ Ló-chú Tâi-lô Ló-tsú Old Chinese Baxter–Sagart (2014) *C.rˤuʔ tsəʔ
Second alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	道德真經
Simplified Chinese	道德真经
Literal meaning	"Sutra of the Way and Its Power"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Dàodé Zhēnjīng Bopomofo ㄉㄠˋ ㄉㄜˊ ㄓㄣ ㄐㄧㄥ Wade–Giles Tao4> Tê2 Chên1 Ching1 Yale Romanization Dàudé Jēnjīng IPA [tâʊ tɤ̌ ʈʂə́n tɕíŋ] Old Chinese Baxter–Sagart (2014) *[kə.l]ˤuʔ tˤək ti[n] k-lˤeŋ

The Tao Te Ching is central to both philosophical and religious Taoism, and has been highly influential to Chinese philosophy and religious practice in general. It is generally taken as preceding the Zhuangzi, the other core Taoist text, as suggested by the Zhuangzi itself. Terminology originating within the text has been reinterpreted and elaborated upon by Legalist thinkers, Confucianists, and particularly Chinese Buddhists, which had been introduced to China significantly after the initial solidification of Taoist thought. The text is well known in the West, and is one of the most translated texts in world literature.

Title

In English, the title is commonly rendered Tao Te Ching, following the Wade–Giles romanisation, or as Daodejing, following pinyin. It can be translated as The Classic of the Way and its Power, The Book of the Tao and Its Virtue, The Book of the Way and of Virtue, The Tao and its Characteristics, The Canon of Reason and Virtue, The Classic Book of Integrity and the Way, or A Treatise on the Principle and Its Action.

Ancient Chinese books were commonly referenced by the name of their real or supposed author, in this case the "Old Master", Laozi. As such, the Tao Te Ching is also sometimes referred to as the Laozi, especially in Chinese sources.

The title Tao Te Ching, designating the work's status as a classic, was only first applied during the reign of Emperor Jing of Han (157–141 BC). Other titles for the work include the honorific Sutra of the Way and Its Power (道德真經; Dàodé zhēnjing) and the descriptive Five Thousand Character Classic (五千文; Wǔqiān wén).

Textual history

Principal versions

Among the many transmitted editions of the Tao Te Ching text, the three primary ones are named after early commentaries. The "Yan Zun Version", which is only extant for the Te Ching, derives from a commentary attributed to Han dynasty scholar Yan Zun (‹See Tfd›巖尊, fl. 80 BC – 10 AD). The "Heshang Gong" version is named after the legendary Heshang Gong ('legendary sage'), who supposedly lived during the reign of Emperor Wen of Han (180–157 BC). This commentary has a preface written by Ge Xuan (164–244 AD), granduncle of Ge Hong, and scholarship dates this version to c. the 3rd century AD. The origins of the "Wang Bi" version have greater verification than either of the above. Wang Bi (226–249 AD) was a Three Kingdoms-period philosopher and commentator on the Tao Te Ching and I Ching.

Archaeologically recovered manuscripts

Tao Te Ching scholarship has advanced from archaeological discoveries of manuscripts, some of which are older than any of the received texts. Beginning in the 1920s and 1930s, Marc Aurel Stein and others found thousands of scrolls in the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang. They included more than 50 partial and complete manuscripts. Another partial manuscript has the Xiang'er commentary, which had previously been lost.

In 1973, archaeologists discovered copies of early Chinese books, known as the Mawangdui Silk Texts, in a tomb dated to 168 BC. They included two nearly complete copies of the text, referred to as Text A (‹See Tfd›甲) and Text B (‹See Tfd›乙), both of which reverse the traditional ordering and put the Te Ching section before the Tao Ching, which is why the Henricks translation of them is named "Te-Tao Ching". Based on calligraphic styles and imperial naming taboo avoidances, scholars believe that Text A can be dated to about the first decade and Text B to about the third decade of the 2nd century BC.

In 1993, the oldest known version of the text, written on bamboo slips, was found in a tomb near the town of Guodian (郭店) in Jingmen, Hubei, and dated prior to 300 BC. The Guodian Chu Slips comprise around 800 slips of bamboo with a total of over 13,000 characters, about 2,000 of which correspond with the Tao Te Ching.

Both the Mawangdui and Guodian versions are generally consistent with the received texts, excepting differences in chapter sequence and graphic variants. Several recent Tao Te Ching translations utilise these two versions, sometimes with the verses reordered to synthesize the new finds.

Relative chronology within philosophical literature

See also: Guanzi dating

Although debated more in early scholarship, early modern scholars like Feng Youlan and Creel still considered the work to be a compilation, and modern scholarship predominantly holds the text to be a compilation or anthology representing multiple authors, as typical for long-form early Chinese texts. Essentially the dating of A.C. Graham, the current text might have been compiled c. 250 BCE, drawn from a wide range of versions dating back a century or two. Schwartz still considered it remarkably unified by the time of the Mawangdui silk texts, even if these versions swap the two halves of the text.

Linguistic studies of the Tao Te Ching's vocabulary and rime scheme point to a date of composition after the Classic of Poetry, but before the Zhuangzi, and would generally be taken as preceding the Zhuangzi. The early work of Sinologist Herrlee G. Creel proposed that Shen Buhai preceded it as well. Benjamin I. Schwartz's contemporaries discussed Shen Dao as a Daoistic predecessor. A member of the Jixia Academy, Shen Dao is listed in the Outer Zhuangzi before Laozi and Zhuangzi, and bares similarity to the Inner Zhuangzi, which does not appear to be familiar with the Tao Te Ching. Thus, a strata representative of the early Zhuangzi may still have preceded it.

Chad Hansen does not consider the Outer Zhuangzi entirely accurate chronologically, but still discusses Shen Dao as part of the theoretical framework of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Daoism, as "Pre-Laozi Daoist Theory". Discussing concepts of names and realities, Feng Youlan proposed the school of names as preceding it the Tao Te Ching, but while some may have, it does not demonstrate school of names influence the way the Zhuangzi does.

Authorship

The Tao Te Ching was traditionally ascribed to Laozi, whose historical existence has been a matter of scholarly debate. His name, which means "Old Master", has only fuelled controversy on this issue. Legends claim variously that Laozi was "born old" and that he lived for 996 years, with twelve previous incarnations starting around the time of the Three Sovereigns before the thirteenth as Laozi. Some scholars have expressed doubts over Laozi's historicity.

Laozi riding a water buffalo

The first biographical reference to Laozi is in the Records of the Grand Historian, by Chinese historian Sima Qian (c. 145–86 BC), which combines three stories. In the first, Laozi was a contemporary of Confucius (551–479 BC). His surname was Li (李), and his personal name was Er (耳) or Dan (聃). He was an official in the imperial archives, and wrote a book in two parts before departing to the West; at the request of the keeper of the Han-ku Pass, Yinxi, Laozi composed the Tao Te Ching. In the second story, Laozi, also a contemporary of Confucius, was Lao Laizi (‹See Tfd›老萊子), who wrote a book in 15 parts. Third, Laozi was the grand historian and astrologer Lao Dan (‹See Tfd›老聃), who lived during the reign of Duke Xian of Qin (r. 384–362 BC).

Contents

Themes

See also: Laozi § Tao Te Ching

The Tao Te Ching describes the Tao as the source and ideal of all existence: it is unseen, but not transcendent, immensely powerful yet supremely humble, being the root of all things. People have desires and free will (and thus are able to alter their own nature). Many act "unnaturally", upsetting the natural balance of the Tao. The Tao Te Ching intends to lead students to a "return" to their natural state, in harmony with Tao. Language and conventional wisdom are critically assessed. Taoism views them as inherently biased and artificial, widely using paradoxes to sharpen the point.

Wu wei, literally 'non-action' or 'not acting', is a central concept of the Tao Te Ching. The concept of wu wei is multifaceted, and reflected in the words' multiple meanings, even in English translation; it can mean "not doing anything", "not forcing", "not acting" in the theatrical sense, "creating nothingness", "acting spontaneously", and "flowing with the moment".

This concept is used to explain ziran, or harmony with the Tao. It includes the concepts that value distinctions are ideological and seeing ambition of all sorts as originating from the same source. Tao Te Ching used the term broadly with simplicity and humility as key virtues, often in contrast to selfish action. On a political level, it means avoiding such circumstances as war, harsh laws and heavy taxes. Some Taoists see a connection between wu wei and esoteric practices, such as zuowang ('sitting in oblivion': emptying the mind of bodily awareness and thought) found in the Zhuangzi.

Internal structure

The Tao Te Ching is a text of around 5,162 to 5,450 Chinese characters in 81 brief chapters or sections (章). There is some evidence that the chapter divisions were later additions—for commentary, or as aids to rote memorisation—and that the original text was more fluidly organised. It has two parts, the Tao Ching (道經; chapters 1–37) and the Te Ching (德經; chapters 38–81), which may have been edited together into the received text, possibly reversed from an original Te Tao Ching.

The written style is laconic, and has few grammatical particles. While the ideas are singular, the style is poetic, combining two major strategies: short, declarative statements, and intentional contradictions, encouraging varied, contradictory interpretations. The first of these strategies creates memorable phrases, while the second forces the reader to reconcile supposed contradictions. With a partial reconstruction of the pronunciation of Old Chinese spoken during the Tao Te Ching's composition, approximately three-quarters rhymed in the original language.

The Chinese characters in the earliest versions were written in seal script, while later versions were written in clerical script and regular script styles.

Translation

The Tao Te Ching has been translated into Western languages over 250 times, mostly to English, German, and French. According to Holmes Welch, "It is a famous puzzle which everyone would like to feel he had solved." The first English translation of the Tao Te Ching was produced in 1868 by the Scottish Protestant missionary John Chalmers, entitled The Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity, and Morality of the "Old Philosopher" Lau-tsze. It was heavily indebted to Julien's French translation and dedicated to James Legge, who later produced his own translation for Oxford's Sacred Books of the East.

Other notable English translations of the Tao Te Ching are those produced by Chinese scholars and teachers: a 1948 translation by linguist Lin Yutang, a 1961 translation by author John Ching Hsiung Wu, a 1963 translation by sinologist Din Cheuk Lau, another 1963 translation by professor Wing-tsit Chan, and a 1972 translation by Taoist teacher Gia-Fu Feng together with his wife Jane English.

Many translations are written by people with a foundation in Chinese language and philosophy who are trying to render the original meaning of the text as faithfully as possible into English. Some of the more popular translations are written from a less scholarly perspective, giving an individual author's interpretation. Critics of these versions claim that their translators deviate from the text and are incompatible with the history of Chinese thought. Russell Kirkland goes further to argue that these versions are based on Western Orientalist fantasies and represent the colonial appropriation of Chinese culture. Other Taoism scholars, such as Michael LaFargue and Jonathan Herman, argue that while they do not pretend to scholarship, they meet a real spiritual need in the West. These Westernized versions aim to make the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching more accessible to modern English-speaking readers by, typically, employing more familiar cultural and temporal references.

Challenges in translation

The Tao Te Ching is written in Classical Chinese, which generally poses a number of challenges for interpreters and translators. As Holmes Welch notes, the written language "has no active or passive, no singular or plural, no case, no person, no tense, no mood." Moreover, the received text lacks many grammatical particles which are preserved in the older Mawangdui and Beida texts, which permit the text to be more precise. Lastly, many passages of the Tao Te Ching are deliberately ambiguous.

Since there is very little punctuation in Classical Chinese, determining the precise boundaries between words and sentences is not always trivial. Deciding where these phrasal boundaries are must be done by the interpreter. Some translators have argued that the received text is so corrupted due to its original medium being bamboo strips linked with silk threads—that it is impossible to understand some passages without some transposition of characters.

Notable translations

• Le Livre de la Voie et de la Vertu (in French), translated by Julien, Stanislas, Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1842
• The Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity, and Morality of the "Old Philosopher" Lau-tsze, translated by Chalmers, John, London: Trübner, 1868, ISBN 978-0-524-07788-7
• Müller, Max, ed. (1891), The Tao Teh King, Sacred Books of the East – Sacred Books of China, vol. XXXIX:V, translated by Legge, James, Oxford University Press – via Project Gutenberg.
• Giles, Lionel; et al., eds. (1905), The Sayings of Lao Tzu, The Wisdom of the East, New York: E. P. Dutton
• Suzuki, Daisetsu Teitaro; et al., eds. (1913), The Canon of Reason and Virtue: Lao-tze's Tao Teh King, La Salle: Open Court.
• Les Pères du Système Taoiste, Taoïsme, Vol. II (in French), translated by Wieger, Léon, Hien Hien, 1913
• Wilhelm, Richard (1923), Tao Te King: das Buch vom Sinn und Leben (in German), Jena: Diederichs
• Duyvendak, J.J.L. (1954), Tao Te Ching: The Book of the Way and Its Virtue, John Murray
• Waley, Arthur (1958) [1934], The Way and Its Power, New York: Grove Press
• Chan, Wing-tsit (1963), The Way of Lao Tzu: Tao-te ching, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill
• Houang, François and Leyris, Pierre (1979), La Voie et sa vertu: Tao-tê-king (in French), Paris: Éditions du Seuil
• Tao Te Ching: A New English Version, translated by Mitchell, Stephen, New York: Harper Collins, 1988, ISBN 978-0-06-180739-8.
• Henricks, Robert G. (1989), Lao-tzu: Te-tao ching. A New Translation Based on the Recently Discovered Ma-wang-tui Texts, New York: Ballantine Books, ISBN 0-345-34790-0
• Tao Te Ching, translated by Lau, D. C., Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1989, ISBN 9789622014671
• Tao Te Ching: The Classic Book of Integrity and the Way, translated by Mair, Victor H., New York: Bantam, 1990, ISBN 978-0-307-43463-0.
• Tao-Te-Ching, translated by Bryce, Derek; et al., York Beach: Samuel Weiser, 1991, ISBN 978-1-60925-441-4
• Addiss, Stephen and Lombardo, Stanley (1991) Tao Te Ching, Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.
• Ursula K. Le Guin Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of Way, Shambhala Press, 1998, ISBN 978-1611807240.
• David Hinton, Tao Te Ching, Counterpoint Press, 2001, ISBN 978-1582431826.
• Chad Hansen, Laozi: Tao Te Ching on The Art of Harmony, Duncan Baird Publications, 2009
• Red Pine, Lao-tzu's Taoteching, Copper Canyon Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1556592904
• Sinedino, Giorgio (2015), Dao De Jing (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Unesp

See also

• Bogar
• Ecclesiastes
• Huahujing
• Huainanzi
• Huangdi Yinfujing
• Qingjing Jing
• Sanhuangjing
• Straw dog
• Taiping Jing
• Xishengjing
• Four Books and Five Classics

References

Sources

• Ariel, Yoav; Raz, Gil (2010), "Anaphors or Cataphors? A Discussion of the Two qi 其 Graphs in the First Chapter of the Daodejing", Philosophy East and West, 60 (3), University of Hawai'i Press: 391–421, doi:10.1353/PEW.0.0108, JSTOR 40666591, S2CID 170969512
• Boltz, William G. (1993), "Lao tzu Tao-te-ching", in Loewe, Michael (ed.), Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, pp. 269–92, ISBN 1-55729-043-1.
• Chan, Alan (2013), "Laozi", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University.
• Cole, Alan (August 2006), "Simplicity for the Sophisticated: Rereading the Daode Jing for the Polemics of Ease and Innocence", History of Religions, 46 (1), University of Chicago Press: 1–49, doi:10.1086/507927, JSTOR 10.1086/507927, S2CID 170162034
• Creel, Herrlee Glessner (1970), What is Taoism?, University of Chicago Press, doi:10.2307/1397689, ISBN 978-0-226-12041-6, JSTOR 1397689, OCLC 1256745090
• Damascene, Hieromonk; Lou, Shibai; Tang, You-Shan (1999), Christ the Eternal Tao, Platina, CA: Saint Herman Press
• Eliade, Mircea (1984), A History of Religious Ideas, vol. 2: From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity, translated by Trask, Willard R., University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0-226-20403-1
• Feng Youlan (1948). A Short History of Chinese Philosophy. Free Press. ISBN 978-0-684-83634-8.
• Graham, A.C. (1989), Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China, Open Court, ISBN 978-0-8126-9942-5
• Hansen, Chad (1992). A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-535076-0.
• Hansen, Chad (2020). "Daoism". In Zalta, Edward N.; Nodelman, Uri (eds.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2020 ed.). Retrieved 19 February 2024.
• Hansen, Chad (2024). "Zhuangzi". In Zalta, Edward N.; Nodelman, Uri (eds.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2024 ed.). Retrieved 19 February 2024.
• Kaltenmark, Max (1969). Lao Tzu and Taoism. Translated by Roger Greaves. Stanford University Press.
• Klaus, Hilmar (2009) [2008], Das Tao der Weisheit. Laozi-Daodejing [The Tao of Wisdom. Laozi-Daodejing] (in German and English), Aachen: Mainz
• LaFargue, Michael (1998), Kohn, Livia; LaFargue, Michael (eds.), Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-3600-4
• LaFargue, Michael; Pas, Julian (1998), "On Translating the Tao-te-ching", in Kohn, Livia; LaFargue, Michael (eds.), Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, pp. 277–302, ISBN 978-0-7914-3600-4
• Kohn, Livia, ed. (2000), Daoism Handbook, Handbook of Oriental Studies, Section 4: China, vol. 14, Boston: Brill, doi:10.1163/9789004391840, ISBN 978-9004112087
  • Chan, Alan K. L. "The Daode Jing and Its Tradition". In Kohn (2000), pp. 1–29.
• Komjathy, Louis (2008), Handbooks for Daoist Practice (10 vols.), Hong Kong: Yuen Yuen Institute
• Schwartz, Benjamin (1985). The World of Thought in Ancient China. Harvard: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-96191-3.
• Van Norden, Bryan W.; Ivanhoe, Philip J. (2006), Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy (2nd ed.), Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, ISBN 978-0-87220-780-6
• Watts, Alan; Huang, Chung-liang (1975), Tao: The Watercourse Way, New York: Pantheon, ISBN 978-0-394-73311-1
• Welch, Holmes (1965) [1957], Taoism: The Parting of the Way, Boston: Beacon, ISBN 978-0-8070-5973-9
• Xiaogan, Liu (1994). Xiaogan Liu (ed.). Classifying the Zhuangzi Chapters. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472901340.

External links

• Daodejing (in Literary Chinese and English), translated by Legge, James (Wang Bi ed.) – via Chinese Text Project
  • Laozi (in Literary Chinese) (Guodian ed.) – via Chinese Text Project
  • Laozi (in Literary Chinese) (Mawangdui ed.) – via Chinese Text Project
• Legge translation at Standard Ebooks
• Tao Te Ching public domain audiobook at LibriVox
• Legge, Suzuki, and Goddard's translations side-by-side, along with the original text