Tao Te Ching
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Attributed (authorship debated)
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~10,500 words · 50 passages
Cite this work
- APALaozi. (n.d.). Tao Te Ching. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/laozi/the-tao-teh-king-or-the-tao-and-its-characteristics
- MLALaozi. "Tao Te Ching." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/laozi/the-tao-teh-king-or-the-tao-and-its-characteristics.
- ChicagoLaozi. Tao Te Ching. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/laozi/the-tao-teh-king-or-the-tao-and-its-characteristics.
What it is about
Eighty-one brief poems on the Tao, the way that cannot be named: governing without forcing, acting without doing (wu wei), and the paradoxical strength of the soft — water wearing down stone.
Context and history
Tradition ascribes it to Laozi, an archivist of the Zhou court in the sixth century BC who, disillusioned, departed westward and left the book with the keeper of the frontier pass. Modern scholars see rather a compilation of the fourth to third centuries BC. At some five thousand characters, it is the foundation of philosophical and religious Taoism, and one of the most translated books in history — its enigmatic brevity has made a thousand readings possible, from mysticism to the art of ruling.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
Ch. 1. 1. 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. 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. 2. 1. All in the world know the beauty of the beautiful, and in doing this they have (the idea of) what ugliness is; they all know the skill of the skilful, and in doing this they have (the idea of) what the want of skill is. 2. So it is that existence and non-existence give birth the one to (the idea of) the other; that difficulty and ease produce the one (the idea of) the other; that length and shortness fashion out the one the figure of the other; that (the ideas of) height and lowness arise from the contrast of the one with the other; that the musical notes and tones become harmonious through the relation of one with another; and that being before and behind give the idea of one following another. 3. Therefore the sage manages affairs without doing anything, and conveys his instructions without the use of speech. 4. All things spring up, and there is not one which declines to show itself; they grow, and there is no claim made for their ownership; they go through their processes, and there is no expectation (of a reward for the results). The work is accomplished, and there is no resting in it (as an achievement). The work is done, but how no o