Tao Te ChingTao Te Ching
All 81 chapters of the Tao Te Ching in a public-domain translation, with a note on each group and plain guides to Taoism.
Chapters
- Chapters 1 to 9
- Chapters 10 to 18
- Chapters 19 to 27
- Chapters 28 to 36
- Chapters 37 to 45
- Chapters 46 to 54
- Chapters 55 to 63
- Chapters 64 to 72
- Chapters 73 to 81
Guides
Questions people ask
Who wrote the Tao Te Ching?
Tradition says Laozi; scholars think it was compiled over time and reached its form by the third century BCE.
What does "Tao Te Ching" mean?
Roughly "the classic of the way and its virtue". Legge writes it "Tao Teh King".
The text is James Legge\'s English translation of 1891, in the public domain. Legge\'s brackets mark words he added to make the sense clear. The notes are our own. Translations of the Tao Te Ching differ a great deal, and this one is old; for the sense, read a few chapters side by side with a modern translation from a library.