The Tao Te Ching has more translations than any other book in the history of the world; and, if you read passages from two, it's often impossible to tell that they are translations of the same book. Lao Tzu's dedication was to the sense, not to the words. Trying to express that sense made his communication ambiguous and paradoxical, more symbolic rather than literal. Like the famous story of the grandmother pointing at the moon and the young child thinking the moon was her finger, Lao Tzu did all he could to undermine our proclivity toward believing that his words are the same as his meaning. Our translation here sometimes goes back to the original Chinese characters but most of it is a “best of the best” words and phrases taken from other translations as well as our own understanding. Here is a list with commentaries on other translations that we found the most helpful.
A New Translation Based on the Recently Discovered Ma-wang-tui Texts
by Lao Tzu
trans: Robert Henricks
Complete Works of Lao Tzu
by Lao Tzu
trans: Hua-Ching Ni
Essential Tao
by Lao Tzu
trans: Thomas Cleary
Illustrated Tao Te Ching
by Lao Tzu
trans: Man-Ho Kwok, Martin Palmer, and Jay Ramsay
Lao Tzu - A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way
by Lao Tzu
trans: Ursula Le Guin
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
by Lao Tzu
trans: D. C. Lau
Lao-Tze’s Tao-Te-King
by Lao Tzu
trans: Paul Carus
Lao-Tzu: “My words are very easy to understand.”
by Lao Tzu
trans: Cheng Man-ch'ing
Lao-Tzu’s TaoTeChing
by Lao Tzu
trans: Red Pine or Bill Porter
Tao of Spirit
by Lao Tzu
trans: John Roger
Tao Te Ching
by Lao Tzu
trans: Stephen Mitchell
Tao Te Ching - Introduction and Notes
by Lao Tzu
trans: Charles Muller
Tao Te Ching – Psychedelic Prayers
by Lao Tzu
trans: Timothy Leary
Tao Te Ching — The Power of Goodness, the Wisdom Beyond Words
by Lao Tzu
trans: Shan Dao
Tao Te Ching, a new translation
by Lao Tzu
trans: Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English
Tao Te Ching, Annotated and Explained
by Lao Tzu
trans: Derek Lin
Tao The Ching
by Lao Tzu
trans: John Wu
The Way and its Power
by Lao Tzu
trans: Arthur Waley
Way of Lao Tzu
by Lao Tzu
trans: Wing-tsit Chan
Way of Life According to Lao Tzu
by Lao Tzu
trans: Witter Bynner
Comments (1)
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Shan Dao
3 years ago
"the 'Tao Te Ching' — the presiding expression of not only China's mystical consciousness but of all East Asia's, for Japan's, Korea's, and half of Southeast Asia's cultures derived directly from China."—Huston Smith
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