Tao Te Ching (Legge) · The Tao Teh King, or The Tao and Its Characteristics
Taoism · Translated by James Legge, 1891
The Tao Teh King, or The Tao and Its Characteristics
The Tao Te Ching (Daodejing), ‘the classic of the Way and its power’, is a short book of eighty-one chapters traditionally ascribed to Laozi, said to have been a keeper of archives at the Zhou court in the sixth century BCE; most scholars now date the text in its present form to the fourth or third century BCE. In terse and often paradoxical sayings it describes the Tao as the nameless source of all things and commends simplicity, humility, non-striving (wu wei) and a ruler who governs without interfering. It is the founding text of philosophical Taoism and a scripture of the Taoist religion. James Legge, the Scottish missionary who became Oxford’s first professor of Chinese, published this translation in 1891 in the Sacred Books of the East. Words in parentheses are his, supplied to complete the sense; the chapter titles here are simply each chapter’s opening words.
Part I · Tao
- 1. The Tao that can be trodden is…4 v.
- 2. All in the world know the beauty…4 v.
- 3. Not to value and employ men of…3 v.
- 4. The Tao is like the emptiness of…3 v.
- 5. Heaven and earth do not act from…2 v.
- 6. The valley spirit dies not1 v.
- 7. Heaven is long-enduring and earth continues long2 v.
- 8. The highest excellence is like that of water3 v.
- 9. It is better to leave a vessel unfilled2 v.
- 10. When the intelligent and animal souls are…3 v.
- 11. The thirty spokes unite in the one nave1 v.
- 12. Colour’s five hues from th’ eyes their…2 v.
- 13. Favour and disgrace would seem equally to…4 v.
- 14. We look at it3 v.
- 15. The skilful masters of the Tao in…4 v.
- 16. The state of vacancy should be brought…2 v.
- 17. In the highest antiquity2 v.
- 18. When the Great Tao Way or Method…2 v.
- 19. If we could renounce our sageness and…2 v.
- 20. When we renounce learning we have no troubles4 v.
- 21. The grandest forms of active force2 v.
- 22. The partial becomes complete3 v.
- 23. Abstaining from speech marks him who is…3 v.
- 24. He who stands on his tiptoes does…1 v.
- 25. There was something undefined and complete4 v.
- 26. Gravity is the root of lightness2 v.
- 27. The skilful traveller leaves no traces of…2 v.
- 28. Who knows his manhood’s strength2 v.
- 29. If any one should wish to get…3 v.
- 30. He who would assist a lord of…4 v.
- 31. Now arms3 v.
- 32. The Tao5 v.
- 33. He who knows other men is discerning2 v.
- 34. All-pervading is the Great Tao3 v.
- 35. To him who holds in his hands…2 v.
- 36. When one is about to take an inspiration3 v.
- 37. The Tao in its regular course does…3 v.
Part II · Teh
- 38. Those who possessed in highest degree the…7 v.
- 39. The things which from of old have…4 v.
- 40. The movement of the Tao2 v.
- 41. Scholars of the highest class3 v.
- 42. The Tao produced One3 v.
- 43. The softest thing in the world dashes…2 v.
- 44. Or fame or life3 v.
- 45. Who thinks his great achievements poor2 v.
- 46. When the Tao prevails in the world2 v.
- 47. Without going outside his door2 v.
- 48. He who devotes himself to learning seeks…3 v.
- 49. The sage has no invariable mind of…3 v.
- 50. Men come forth and live4 v.
- 51. All things are produced by the Tao4 v.
- 52. The Tao which originated all under the…5 v.
- 53. If I were suddenly to become known3 v.
- 54. What Tao’s skilful planter plants4 v.
- 55. He who has in himself abundantly the…4 v.
- 56. He who knows the Tao does not…3 v.
- 57. A state may be ruled by measures…3 v.
- 58. The government that seems the most unwise4 v.
- 59. For regulating the human in our constitution…3 v.
- 60. Governing a great state is like cooking…3 v.
- 61. What makes a great state is its…4 v.
- 62. Tao has of all things the most…4 v.
- 63. It is the way of the Tao…3 v.
- 64. That which is at rest is easily…4 v.
- 65. The ancients who showed their skill in…3 v.
- 66. That whereby the rivers and seas are…3 v.
- 67. All the world says that4 v.
- 68. He who in Tao’s wars has skill1 v.
- 69. A master of the art of war…2 v.
- 70. My words are very easy to know3 v.
- 71. To know and yet think we do…2 v.
- 72. When the people do not fear what…4 v.
- 73. He whose boldness appears in his daring…3 v.
- 74. The people do not fear death2 v.
- 75. The people suffer from famine because of…3 v.
- 76. Man at his birth is supple and weak4 v.
- 77. May not the Way or Tao of…4 v.
- 78. There is nothing in the world more…4 v.
- 79. When a reconciliation is effected between two…3 v.
- 80. In a little state with a small population5 v.
- 81. Sincere words are not fine3 v.
Translated by James Legge, 1891. Public domain (first published 1891; translator died 1897).