The Texts of Taoism, Part I (Sacred Books of the East 39)

James Legge

Translated by James Legge

98 chapters · about 5 h

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The opening

Ch. 1.

i. The T&o that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging T ao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.

2. (Conceived of as) having no name, it is the Originator of heaven and earth; (conceived of as) having a name, it is the Mother of all things.

3. Always without desire we must be found, If its deep mystery we would sound; But if desire always within us be, Its outer fringe is all that we shall see.

4. Under these two aspects, it is really the same; but as development takes place, it receives the different names. Together we call them the Mystery. Where the Mystery is the deepest is the gate of all that is subtle and wonderful.

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About this edition

The words
James Legge's English translation, copied word for word.
Left out
  • A preface, foreword or afterword, in 4 places
  • The library's barcode label on the scanned copy (“B 788,412”)
  • Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers, in 72 places
  • The title page and opening pages before chapter 1, in 2 places
  • Page numbers and running heads from the printed pages, in 84 places
  • Other material that isn't the author's
  • The half-title “THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-ZE.” (printed again over the text, page 191) (2 blocks)
  • The library's shelf label (“GRAD BL 1010 .M946 v. 39”)
  • Notes about a stage production
  • The source website's menus, layout and notices
  • ... and 1517 more kinds of left-out material, listed in the edition record