Tao Te Ching#Translations

In English, the title is commonly rendered Tao Te Ching, following the Wade–Giles romanisation, or as Daodejing, following pinyin. It can be translated as The Classic of the Way and its Power,{{Citation |title=The Way and its Power |year=1958 |editor-last=Waley |editor-first=Arthur |url=https://archive.org/details/wayitspowerstudy0000wale |place=New York |publisher=Grove |isbn=0-8021-5085-3 |oclc=1151668016 |editor-link=Arthur Waley |url-access=registration}} The Book of the Tao and Its Virtue,{{sfnp|Kohn & al.|1998|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NXdzosdR0JUC&pg=PA1 1]}} The Book of the Way and of Virtue,{{sfnp|Julien|1842}}{{sfnp|Giles & al.|1905|loc=Introduction}} The Tao and its Characteristics, The Canon of Reason and Virtue, The Classic Book of Integrity and the Way,{{sfnp|Mair|1990}} or A Treatise on the Principle and Its Action.{{sfnp|Wieger|1913|p=3}}{{sfnp|Bryce & al.|1991|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=aMLE056g6MsC&pg=PR9 ix]}}

Ancient Chinese books were commonly referenced by the name of their real or supposed author, in this case the "Old Master",{{sfnp|Chalmers|1868|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=yxFBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR9 ix]}} Laozi. As such, the Tao Te Ching is also sometimes referred to as the Laozi, especially in Chinese sources.

The title Tao Te Ching, designating the work's status as a classic, was only first applied during the reign of Emperor Jing of Han (157–141 BC).{{Citation |last=Seidel |first=Anna |title=La divinisation de Lao-tseu dans le taoïsme des Han |date=1969 |pages=24, 50 |place=Paris |publisher=École française d'Extrême‑Orient |language=fr |author-link=Anna Seidel}} Other titles for the work include the honorific Sutra of the Way and Its Power ({{zhi|c=道德真經|p=Dàodé zhēnjing}}) and the descriptive Five Thousand Character Classic ({{zhi|c=五千文|p=Wǔqiān wén}}).

Among the many transmitted editions of the Tao Te Ching text, the three primary ones are named after early commentaries. The "Yan Zun Version", which is only extant for the Te Ching, derives from a commentary attributed to Han dynasty scholar Yan Zun ({{lang|lzh|巖尊}}, {{fl.|80 BC{{snd}}10 AD}}). The "Heshang Gong" version is named after the legendary Heshang Gong ('legendary sage'), who supposedly lived during the reign of Emperor Wen of Han (180–157 BC). This commentary has a preface written by Ge Xuan (164–244 AD), granduncle of Ge Hong, and scholarship dates this version to {{circa|the 3rd century AD}}. The origins of the "Wang Bi" version have greater verification than either of the above. Wang Bi (226–249 AD) was a Three Kingdoms-period philosopher and commentator on the Tao Te Ching and I Ching.{{Cite book |last=Wagner |first=Rudolf G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3DvtkuXRfBsC&pg=PA10 | page=10 |title=The Craft of a Chinese Commentator: Wang Bi on the Laozi |date=2000 |place=Albany|publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-0-7914-4395-8 |language=en}}

Tao Te Ching scholarship has advanced from archaeological discoveries of manuscripts, some of which are older than any of the received texts. Beginning in the 1920s and 1930s, Marc Aurel Stein and others found thousands of scrolls in the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang. They included more than 50 partial and complete manuscripts. Another partial manuscript has the Xiang'er commentary, which had previously been lost.{{Citation |last=Boltz |first=William G. |title=The Religious and Philosophical Significance of the Hsiang erh Lao tzu 相爾老子 in the Light of the Ma-wang-tui Silk Manuscripts |work=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |volume=45 |year=1982 |jstor=615191 |author-link=William G. Boltz}}{{rp|95ff}}{{Citation |last=Zandbergen |first=Robbert |title=The Ludibrium of Living Well |journal=Monumenta Serica |volume=70 |issue=2 |pages=367–388 |year=2022 |doi=10.1080/02549948.2022.2131802 |s2cid=254151927}}

In 1973, archaeologists discovered copies of early Chinese books, known as the Mawangdui Silk Texts, in a tomb dated to 168 BC. They included two nearly complete copies of the text, referred to as Text A ({{lang|lzh|甲}}) and Text B ({{lang|lzh|乙}}), both of which reverse the traditional ordering and put the Te Ching section before the Tao Ching, which is why the Henricks translation of them is named "Te-Tao Ching". Based on calligraphic styles and imperial naming taboo avoidances, scholars believe that Text A can be dated to about the first decade and Text B to about the third decade of the 2nd century BC.{{Citation |last=Loewe |first=Michael |title=Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide |pages=269 |year=1993 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e10hAQAAIAAJ |publisher=Society for the Study of Early China |language=en |isbn=978-1-55729-043-4}}

In 1993, the oldest known version of the text, written on bamboo slips, was found in a tomb near the town of Guodian ({{zhi|郭店}}) in Jingmen, Hubei, and dated prior to 300 BC. The Guodian Chu Slips comprise around 800 slips of bamboo with a total of over 13,000 characters, about 2,000 of which correspond with the Tao Te Ching.

Both the Mawangdui and Guodian versions are generally consistent with the received texts, excepting differences in chapter sequence and graphic variants. Several recent Tao Te Ching translations utilise these two versions, sometimes with the verses reordered to synthesize the new finds.{{multiref|{{harvp|Lau|1989}}|{{harvp|Henricks|1989}}|{{harvp|Mair|1990}}|Henricks (2000)|Allan and Williams (2000)|Roberts (2004)}}

{{See also|Guanzi_(text)#Dating|label 1=Guanzi dating}}

Although debated more in early scholarship, early modern scholars like Feng Youlan and Herrlee G. Creel still considered the work a compilation,{{sfnp|Creel|1982|pp=1–2}} and most modern scholarship holds the text to be a compilation, as typical for long-form early Chinese texts.{{ Cite book | last= Zhang | first= Hanmo | date= 2018 | title= Authorship and Text-Making in Early China| series= Library of Sinology, vol. 2 | publisher= De Gruyter| chapter = Text, Author, and the Function of Authorship | doi= 10.1515/9781501505133-003 | doi-access= free| jstor= j.ctvbkk21j.5| jstor-access= free |pages=26, 30| isbn= 978-1-5015-0513-3 }} Linguistic studies of the Tao Te Ching{{'}}s vocabulary and rime scheme point to a date of composition after the Classic of Poetry (or Book of Songs), but before the Zhuangzi,{{Citation |last=Laozi |title=Tao Te Ching |pages=162 |year=1963 |author-mask=0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n4GMEAAAQBAJ |publisher=Penguin |language=en |isbn=978-0-14-044131-4 |translator-last=Lau |translator-first=D. C. |translator-link=D. C. Lau}} and would generally be taken as preceding the Zhuangzi.{{sfn|Chan|2013}} This is the traditional "before Zhuangzi’ theory".{{sfn|Mou|2008|p=213}} Although the Book of Songs is a diverse work, they do not appear to bare any especial resemblance.{{sfn|Mou|2008|p=217}}

Based on Sima Qian, the text would traditionally be taken as preceding Shen Buhai. Creel proposed that Shen Buhai may have preceded it as well,{{sfnp|Creel|1982|pp=48-51,93}} but Shen Buhai does bare a "striking" resemblance to Laozi.{{harvnb|Creel|1974|p=189 (Creel's opinion)}}; {{harvnb|Creel|1982|p=50}} (citing {{harvnb|Jin|1963|pp=241-246}}); {{harvnb|Liu|2014|p=248 (citing Jin 1962)}} Although not enough to eliminate a late dating, the discovery of the early Mawangdui silk texts and Guodian Chu Slips again made a dating before the third-century more probable.{{sfnm|1a1=Mou|1y=2008|1p=213,214|2a1=Barlow|2y=1985|2p=92}} Essentially the dating of A.C. Graham, the Stanford Encyclopedia supposes compilation of the current text as dating back to {{circa|250 BCE}}, drawing on a wide range of versions further dating back a century or two.{{cite encyclopedia|last=Chan|first= Alan|entry-url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2018/entries/laozi/ |entry=Laozi|title =The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |edition=Winter 2018 |editor =Edward N. Zalta |access-date=3 February 2020}} Benjamin I. Schwartz still considered the Tao te Ching remarkably unified by the time of the Mawangdui, even if these versions swap the two halves of the text.{{cite book |last1=Schwartz |first1=Benjamin Isadore |author-link = Benjamin I. Schwartz |title=The World of Thought in Ancient China |year=2009 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-04331-2 |page=187 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kA0c1hl3CXUC&pg=PA187}}

Termed the "After Zhuangzi" theory, representative of Ch'ien Mu and Graham, a lack of early references contributes to Graham's late dating. While the Zhuangzi is the first reference for the Tao te Ching, it's Inner Chapters do not demonstrate familiar with it. Thus, an early stratum representative of the Zhuangzi's core Inner Chapters may have preceded it.{{sfnm|1a1=Mou|1y=2008|1p=215|2a1=Graham|2y=1989|2pp=213,217}} Listed in the Outer Zhuangzi's history before Laozi and Zhuangzi, Shen Dao also shares content with the Inner Zhuangzi.{{sfnm|1a1=Graham|1y=1989|1p=376|2a1=Hansen|2y=1992|2pp=345,205,208|3a1=Schwartz|3y=1985|3p=186|4a1=Liu|4y=1994|4p=55}} Less technically complex than Shen Buhai, Shen Dao's current may even precede him, as espoused by Ban Gu.{{sfn|Barlow|1985|p=93}} However, Shen Dao can also be directly compared with the Tao te Ching.{{sfn|Emerson|2013}}

Sinologist Chad Hansen does not consider the Outer Zhuangzi entirely accurate chronologically, but still recalls it as part of a theoretical framework for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Daoism, positioning Shen Dao as "Pre-Laozi Daoist Theory". Discussing concepts of names and realities in its opening, Feng Youlan proposed the school of names as preceding the Tao Te Ching. But while some may have, it does not demonstrate school of names influence the way the Zhuangzi does. The Tao te Ching is not as paradoxical, it tries to demonstrate that the way or dao is not constant. Although differing, Mohism and Confucianism also discuss concepts of names and realities.{{sfnm|1a1=Hansen|1y=2020|2a1=Hansen|2y=2024|3a1=Feng|3y=1948|3p=93|4a1=Hansen|4y=1992|4p=217}}

The Tao Te Ching was traditionally ascribed to Laozi, whose historical existence has been a matter of scholarly debate. His name, which means "Old Master", has only fuelled controversy on this issue.{{Citation |last=Cao |first=Feng |title=Daoism in Early China: Huang–Lao Thought in Light of Excavated Texts |date=20 October 2017 |author-mask=Cao Feng |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vf06DwAAQBAJ |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |language=en |isbn=978-1-137-55094-1}} Legends claim variously that Laozi was "born old" and that he lived for 996 years, with twelve previous incarnations starting around the time of the Three Sovereigns before the thirteenth as Laozi. Some scholars have expressed doubts over Laozi's historicity.{{Citation |last=Laozi |title=Tao Te Ching |pages=162 |year=1963 |author-mask=0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n4GMEAAAQBAJ |publisher=Penguin |language=en |isbn=978-0-14-044131-4 |quote=The tentative conclusion we have arrived at concerning Lao Tzu the man is this. There is no certain evidence that he was a historical figure. |translator-last=Lau |translator-first=D. C. |translator-link=D. C. Lau}}

File:Laozi.jpg]]

The first biographical reference to Laozi is in the Records of the Grand Historian,{{harvnb|Records of the Grand Historian|loc=vol. 63}}, tr. Chan 1963:35–37. by Chinese historian Sima Qian ({{circa|145–86 BC}}), which combines three stories.{{Cite Shiji |63 | anchor=老子| lp=y|trans-chapter=Vol. 63, biography of Laozi |ref={{sfnref|Records of the Grand Historian}}}} In the first, Laozi was a contemporary of Confucius (551–479 BC). His surname was Li ({{zhi|李}}), and his personal name was Er ({{zhi|耳}}) or Dan ({{zhi|聃}}). He was an official in the imperial archives, and wrote a book in two parts before departing to the West; at the request of the keeper of the Han-ku Pass, Yinxi, Laozi composed the Tao Te Ching. In the second story, Laozi, also a contemporary of Confucius, was Lao Laizi ({{lang|lzh|老萊子}}), who wrote a book in 15 parts. Third, Laozi was the grand historian and astrologer Lao Dan ({{lang|lzh|老聃}}), who lived during the reign of Duke Xian of Qin ({{reign|384|362 BC}}).{{sfnp|Records of the Grand Historian|loc=vol. 63}}

{{See also|Laozi#Tao Te Ching}}

{{expand German|title=Daodejing|fa=yes|section=yes|date=June 2022}}

{{#section:Laozi|DDJ themes}}

The Tao Te Ching is a text of around 5,162 to 5,450 Chinese characters in 81 brief chapters or sections ({{lang|lzh|章}}). There is some evidence that the chapter divisions were later additions—for commentary, or as aids to rote memorisation—and that the original text was more fluidly organised. It has two parts, the Tao Ching ({{lang|lzh|道經}}; chapters 1–37) and the Te Ching ({{lang|lzh|德經}}; chapters 38–81), which may have been edited together into the received text, possibly reversed from an original Te Tao Ching.{{Citation |last=Austin |first=Michael |title=Reading the World |date=2010 |page=158 |place=New York |publisher=W. W. Norton |isbn=978-0-393-93349-9}}

The written style is laconic, and has few grammatical particles. While the ideas are singular, the style is poetic, combining two major strategies: short, declarative statements, and intentional contradictions, encouraging varied, contradictory interpretations. The first of these strategies creates memorable phrases, while the second forces the reader to reconcile supposed contradictions. With a partial reconstruction of the pronunciation of Old Chinese spoken during the Tao Te Ching{{'}}s composition, approximately three-quarters rhymed in the original language.{{Citation |last=Minford |first=John |title=Tao Te Ching: The Essential Translation of the Ancient Chinese Book of the Tao |pages=ix–x |year=2018 |place=New York |publisher=Viking Press |language=en |isbn=978-0-670-02498-8 |author-link=John Minford}}

The Chinese characters in the earliest versions were written in seal script, while later versions were written in clerical script and regular script styles.{{cite journal |last=Henricks|first= Robert G. |title=Examining the Ma-Wang-Tui Silk Texts of the Lao-Tzu: With Special Note of Their Differences from the Wang Pi Text|work= T’oung Pao|volume =65|issue= 4/5 |date=1979|pages= 166–199 at 167 | jstor= 4528176}}

The Tao Te Ching has been translated into Western languages over 250 times, mostly to English, German, and French.{{sfnp|LaFargue & al.|1998|p=277}} According to Holmes Welch, "It is a famous puzzle which everyone would like to feel he had solved."{{Citation |last=Welch |first=Holmes |title=Taoism: The Parting of the Way |pages=7 |year=1966 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fe7XAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Beacon Press |language=en |isbn=978-0-8070-5973-9}} The first English translation of the Tao Te Ching was produced in 1868 by the Scottish Protestant missionary John Chalmers, entitled The Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity, and Morality of the "Old Philosopher" Lau-tsze.{{sfnp|Chalmers|1868}} It was heavily indebted{{sfnp|Chalmers|1868|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=yxFBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR19 xix]}} to Julien's French translation{{sfnp|Julien|1842}} and dedicated to James Legge, who later produced his own translation for Oxford's Sacred Books of the East.

Other notable English translations of the Tao Te Ching are those produced by Chinese scholars and teachers: a 1948 translation by linguist Lin Yutang, a 1961 translation by author John Ching Hsiung Wu, a 1963 translation by sinologist Din Cheuk Lau, another 1963 translation by professor Wing-tsit Chan, and a 1972 translation by Taoist teacher Gia-Fu Feng together with his wife Jane English.

Many translations are written by people with a foundation in Chinese language and philosophy who are trying to render the original meaning of the text as faithfully as possible into English. Some of the more popular translations are written from a less scholarly perspective, giving an individual author's interpretation. Critics of these versions claim that their translators deviate from the text and are incompatible with the history of Chinese thought.{{Citation |last=Eoyang |first=Eugene |title=Review: Tao Te Ching: A New English Translation by Stephen Mitchell |work=The Journal of Religion |volume=70 |issue=3 |pages=492–493 |year=1990 |type=book review |publisher=University of Chicago Press |doi=10.1086/488454 |jstor=1205252}} Russell Kirkland goes further to argue that these versions are based on Western Orientalist fantasies and represent the colonial appropriation of Chinese culture.{{Citation |last=Kirkland |first=Russell |title=The Taoism of the Western Imagination and the Taoism of China: De-Colonizing the Exotic Teachings of the East |work=University of Tennessee |year=1997 |url=https://religion.uga.edu/sites/default/files/inline-files/TENN97.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070102000401/http://kirkland.myweb.uga.edu/rk/pdf/pubs/pres/TENN97.pdf |archive-date=2 January 2007}}{{Citation |first=Russell |last=Kirkland |title=Taoism: The Enduring Tradition |page=1 |year=2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gg0XCJcGDhYC&pg=PP1 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-203-64671-7}} Other Taoism scholars, such as Michael LaFargue{{cite book | last=LaFargue | first= Michael | title= Tao and Method: A reasoned approach to the Tao Te Ching | date= 1994 | publisher= State University of New York Press |isbn= 9781438409863}} and Jonathan Herman,{{Citation |last=Herman |first=Jonathan R. |title=Reviewed work: Tao te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way, Ursula K. Le Guin |work=Journal of the American Academy of Religion |volume=66 |issue=3 |pages=686–689 |year=1998 |doi=10.1093/jaarel/66.3.686 |jstor=1466152}} argue that while they do not pretend to scholarship, they meet a real spiritual need in the West. These Westernized versions aim to make the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching more accessible to modern English-speaking readers by, typically, employing more familiar cultural and temporal references.

{{more citations needed section|date=January 2018}}

The Tao Te Ching is written in Classical Chinese, which generally poses a number of challenges for interpreters and translators. As Holmes Welch notes, the written language "has no active or passive, no singular or plural, no case, no person, no tense, no mood."{{harvp|Welch|1965| p=9}} Moreover, the received text lacks many grammatical particles which are preserved in the older Mawangdui and Beida texts, which permit the text to be more precise.{{harvp|Henricks|1989|p=xvi}} Lastly, many passages of the Tao Te Ching are deliberately ambiguous.{{cite journal |last1=Record |first1=Kirby |date=March 2022 |title=On Translating the Dark Enigma: The Tao Te Ching |url=https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/tal.2022.0494?role=tab |journal=Translation and Literature |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=52–65 |doi=10.3366/tal.2022.0494 |quote=The problem of intentional ambiguities in the original work lies at the heart of all poetry translations but is particularly challenging in the case of ideographic texts of antiquity... |access-date=9 April 2024}}{{cite journal |last=Chan |first=Alan K. L. |date=October 1993 |title=Review: On Reading the Tao Te Ching: Mair, Lafargue, Chan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1399212 |journal=Philosophy East and West |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=745–750 |doi=10.2307/1399212 |jstor=1399212 |access-date=9 April 2024}}

Since there is very little punctuation in Classical Chinese, determining the precise boundaries between words and sentences is not always trivial. Deciding where these phrasal boundaries are must be done by the interpreter. Some translators have argued that the received text is so corrupted due to{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}} its original medium being bamboo strips{{cite web |last=Shen |first=Andrea |title=Ancient script rewrites history |website=Harvard Gazette |date=22 February 2001 |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2001/02/harvard-gazette-ancient-script-rewrites-history/ | access-date=9 April 2024}} linked with silk threads—that it is impossible to understand some passages without some transposition of characters.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

=== Notable translations ===

{{Refbegin}}

• {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=Le Livre de la Voie et de la Vertu |year=1842 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ll5TAAAAcAAJ |place=Paris |publisher=Imprimerie Royale |language=fr |ref={{harvid|Julien|1842}} |display-authors=0 |translator-last=Julien |translator-first=Stanislas |translator-link=Stanislas Julien}}
• {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=The Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity, and Morality of the "Old Philosopher" Lau-tsze |year=1868 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxFBAAAAYAAJ |place=London |publisher=Trübner |isbn=978-0-524-07788-7 |ref={{harvid|Chalmers|1868}} |display-authors=0 |translator-last=Chalmers |translator-first=John |translator-link=John Chalmers (missionary)}}
• {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=The Tao Teh King |volume=XXXIX:V |year=1891 |editor-last=Müller |editor-first=Max |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23974 |series=Sacred Books of the East – Sacred Books of China |publisher=Oxford University Press |ref={{harvid|Legge & al.|1891}} |display-authors=0 |editor-link=Max Müller |translator-last=Legge |translator-first=James |translator-link=James Legge |via=Project Gutenberg}}.
• {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=The Sayings of Lao Tzu |year=1905 |editor-last=Giles |editor-first=Lionel |display-editors=1 |series=The Wisdom of the East |place=New York |publisher=E. P. Dutton |ref={{harvid|Giles & al.|1905}} |display-authors=0 |editor2-last=Cranmer-Byng |editor2-first=S. A. |editor3-last=Kapadia |editor-link=Lionel Giles}}
• {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=The Canon of Reason and Virtue: Lao-tze's Tao Teh King |year=1913 |editor-last=Suzuki |editor-first=Daisetsu Teitaro |display-editors=1 |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/crv/ |place=La Salle |publisher=Open Court |ref={{harvid|Suzuki & al.|1913}} |display-authors=0 |editor2-last=Carus |editor2-first=Paul |editor1-link=D. T. Suzuki}}.
• {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=Les Pères du Système Taoiste |year=1913 |series=Taoïsme, Vol. II |publisher=Hien Hien |language=fr |ref={{harvid|Wieger|1913}} |display-authors=0 |translator-last=Wieger |translator-first=Léon |translator-link=Léon Wieger}}
• {{Citation |last=Wilhelm |first=Richard |title=Tao Te King: das Buch vom Sinn und Leben |year=1923 |place=Jena |publisher=Diederichs |language=de |author-link=Richard Wilhelm (sinologist)}}
• {{Citation |last=Duyvendak |first=J.J.L. |title=Tao Te Ching: The Book of the Way and Its Virtue |year=1954 |publisher=John Murray |author-link=J.J.L. Duyvendak}}
• {{Citation |last=Waley |first=Arthur |title=The Way and Its Power |year=1958 |orig-date=1934 |place=New York |publisher=Grove Press |author-link=Arthur Waley}}
• {{Citation |last=Chan |first=Wing-tsit |title=The Way of Lao Tzu: Tao-te ching |year=1963 |place=Indianapolis |publisher=Bobbs-Merrill |author-link=Wing-tsit Chan}}
• Houang, François and Leyris, Pierre (1979), La Voie et sa vertu: Tao-tê-king (in French), Paris: Éditions du Seuil
• {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=Tao Te Ching: A New English Version |year=1988 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=esUrAbMWAa4C |place=New York |publisher=Harper Collins |isbn=978-0-06-180739-8 |display-authors=0 |translator-last=Mitchell |translator-first=Stephen |translator-link=Stephen Mitchell (translator)}}.
• {{Citation |last=Henricks |first=Robert G. |title=Lao-tzu: Te-tao ching. A New Translation Based on the Recently Discovered Ma-wang-tui Texts |year=1989 |place=New York |publisher=Ballantine Books |isbn=0-345-34790-0}}
• {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=Tao Te Ching |year=1989 |place=Hong Kong |publisher=Chinese University Press |isbn=9789622014671 |display-authors=0 |translator-last=Lau |translator-first=D. C. |translator-link=D. C. Lau |ref={{harvid|Lau|1989}}}}
• {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=Tao Te Ching: The Classic Book of Integrity and the Way |year=1990 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uE7thB_vwQQC |place=New York |publisher=Bantam |isbn=978-0-307-43463-0 |ref={{harvid|Mair|1990}} |display-authors=0 |translator-last=Mair |translator-first=Victor H. |translator-link=Victor H. Mair}}.
• {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=Tao-Te-Ching |year=1991 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aMLE056g6MsC |place=York Beach |publisher=Samuel Weiser |isbn=978-1-60925-441-4 |ref={{harvid|Bryce & al.|1991}} |display-authors=0 |translator-last=Bryce |translator-first=Derek |translator-last2=Wieger |translator-first2=Léon |display-translators=1}}
• Addiss, Stephen and Lombardo, Stanley (1991) Tao Te Ching, Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company.
• Ursula K. Le Guin {{Citation |last=Laozi |title=Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of Way |year=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hzw6kER9etoC |publisher=Shambhala Press |isbn=978-1611807240 |display-authors=0 |translator-link=Ursula K. Le Guin}}.
• David Hinton, {{Citation |title= Tao Te Ching |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pd8REAAAQBAJ |publisher=Counterpoint Press |year=2001 |ISBN=978-1582431826}}.
• Chad Hansen, Laozi: Tao Te Ching on The Art of Harmony, Duncan Baird Publications, 2009
• Red Pine, {{Citation |title=Lao-tzu's Taoteching |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GM-wv1S2D6cC |publisher=Copper Canyon Press |year=2009 |ISBN=978-1556592904}}
• Sinedino, Giorgio (2015), Dao De Jing (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Unesp

{{Refend}}

{{Div col|colwidth=27em}}

• Bogar
• Ecclesiastes
• Huahujing
• Huainanzi
• Huangdi Yinfujing
• Qingjing Jing
• Sanhuangjing
• Straw dog
• Taiping Jing
• Xishengjing
• Four Books and Five Classics

{{colend}}

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{{Reflist|25em}}

{{Refbegin|30em}}

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• {{Citation |title=Daodejing |url=https://ctext.org/dao-de-jing |edition=Wang Bi |language=lzh,en |translator-last=Legge |translator-first=James |translator-link=James Legge |via=Chinese Text Project}}
• {{Citation |title=Laozi |url=https://ctext.org/guodian |edition=Guodian |language=lzh |via=Chinese Text Project}}
• {{Citation |title=Laozi |url=https://ctext.org/mawangdui |edition=Mawangdui |language=lzh |via=Chinese Text Project}}
• {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/laozi/tao-te-ching/james-legge|Display Name=Legge translation |noitalics=true }}
• {{librivox book |dtitle=Tao Te Ching |stitle=Tao |author=Laozi }}
• [http://www.yellowbridge.com/onlinelit/daodejing.php Legge, Suzuki, and Goddard's translations side-by-side, along with the original text]

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