Tao Te Ching
Translated by James Legge
The Tao Te Ching presents eighty-one short chapters on the Tao, conduct and government. James Legge’s translation combines prose and verse in two parts, with recurring images of water, emptiness and unforced action.
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The opening
I
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.
(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.
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.
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.
- Copied from
Standard Ebooks; The Tao Te Ching was written circa the sixth century BC by Laozi.
It was translated from Classical Chinese in 1891 by James Legge. The creators of, and contributors to, this ebook dedicate their contributions to the worldwide public domain via the terms in the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
- Left out
- The title page and opening pages before chapter 1, in 2 places
- Pictures and their captions
- Standard Ebooks' imprint
- A preface, foreword or afterword, in 2 places
- Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers, in 4 places
- Notes about a stage production
- Standard Ebooks' public-domain dedication page
- Kept as written
Its discussion of warfare, killing and rule over the people is kept as the author wrote it.