Cover: Standard Ebooks edition cover · CC0 public domain dedication · source
Tao Te Ching
Eighty-one short chapters on the Way that cannot be named, on wu wei — action without forcing — and on the strength of water, which yields and wears away stone. A book that undoes the hurry the rest of this library sometimes encourages.
- First published
- 4th–3rd century BCE
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Reading time
- About 45 minutes
- Translation
- James Legge
Reading time: 10,710 words in Project Gutenberg text #216, read at 238 words per minute.
Traditionally dated to the 6th century BCE; scholars place the text in the 4th–3rd. James Legge's translation, Sacred Books of the East (1891).
- the Way
- wu wei
- humility
- softness
- simplicity
Where to read it
- Read free — Standard EbooksPublic domain text, carefully proofread and produced. · checked 11 Oct 2026(opens in a new tab)
- Read free — Project GutenbergPublic domain in the USA; check your local law outside it. · checked 11 Oct 2026(opens in a new tab)
- Read free — WikisourcePublic domain transcription. · checked 11 Oct 2026(opens in a new tab)
Copyright
- Kenya
- Public domain (translator d. 1897)
- United States
- Public domain
NOESIS hosts no book files. Links lead to the sources named.
Questions for discussion
How does wu wei sit beside Hill's persistence or Wattles's will?
Read one chapter aloud slowly. What changed between the first and the third reading?
Legge's translation is Victorian. What do you suspect is lost, and how could you find out?
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