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Tao Te Ching

A short book of verse and sayings that tells rulers to govern by doing less, and everyone else to want less.

by Laozi81 passages held

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Original title
道德經
First published
400 BCE(published posthumously)
Original language
Chinese

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Overview

Eighty-one short chapters of verse and aphorism, some five thousand Chinese characters in all, make up the founding text of Daoism, and nobody can say for certain who wrote them. Sima Qian, the Han court historian, tells of an archivist at the Zhou royal court who left a kingdom in decline and wrote the book at a frontier pass because its keeper asked him to. Tradition calls this archivist Laozi and places him in the sixth century BCE, as an older contemporary whom Confucius consulted. Most historians now hold that the sayings were written down and gathered over generations, from the fifth century BCE, and reached a settled form by the third. The book argues that the Tao (the Way), the source and course of all things, works without forcing anything, and that a person or a ruler does best by acting in the same manner. Its opponents are the moral teachers of its day: benevolence and righteousness, the virtues the followers of Confucius taught, appear here as signs that the Way has already been lost. Water is its model, because nothing is softer or weaker and nothing does better against what is hard. From this follows a politics of small states, few prohibitions, light taxes and reluctance to go to war. The Han Feizi, a handbook of state power from the third century BCE, contains the earliest surviving commentary on it. Daoist religion later made the book a scripture and Laozi a god, and in 733 CE the Tang emperor Xuanzong ordered his officials to keep a copy. Silk manuscripts found in 1973 at Mawangdui, in a tomb sealed in 168 BCE, give the book's two parts in the reverse of the traditional order. A Latin version made in the eighteenth century was the first in a Western language; by a count made in 2022 there are now about two thousand translations worldwide.

Key concepts

What is the Tao in the Tao Te Ching?

The Tao (the Way) is the source of everything and the course everything follows. It was there before heaven and earth, still and formless, and the book calls it the mother of all things. It has no name of its own, and 'Tao' is a label given because one is needed. It brings things forth and feeds them without owning or commanding them, and a person can live in the same manner.

What does the 'Te' in the title mean?

Te is the power or character a thing has when the Tao (the Way) works in it. The usual English word is 'virtue', and the translation read here says 'the attributes of the Tao'. Moral effort is not meant. Those who have most of it do not try to show it, the book says, and whoever is full of it is like an infant: weak in bone and soft in sinew, yet with a firm grasp.

What does non-action mean in this book?

Non-action means acting without forcing: without a private purpose, without clinging to the result, and without fighting the way things go. It is not idleness. The Tao (the Way) does nothing for the sake of doing it, and so nothing is left undone. The sage works the same way: he deals with difficulties while they are still small, finishes the work, and does not rest in it as an achievement.

Who is the sage in the Tao Te Ching?

The sage is the book's picture of a person who lives by the Tao (the Way), and most often he is a ruler. He puts himself last and is found in front. He does not display himself, boast or contend, so no one can contend with him. He teaches without words, does not hoard, and is good even to those who are not good. He is a model to imitate and never a named person.

What does the book mean by simplicity?

Simplicity is the state of a thing before it has been shaped, named or put to use. The book's image is wood that has not been made into anything: once cut up it becomes vessels, each good for one purpose. A person in this state wants little and has no schemes, like an infant. A people in this state, the book claims, needs few laws, and it wants rulers to lead them back to it.

Why does the Tao Te Ching distrust benevolence and righteousness?

Because it reads them as signs of a loss. When the great Way stopped being followed, the book says, benevolence and righteousness came into fashion, and hypocrisy followed. People who live well by themselves need no one to preach kindness or duty. The preaching begins when the thing itself is gone. Dutiful sons are noticed only when families quarrel, and loyal ministers only when the state is in disorder.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

The Way that cannot be named

Can the source of everything be spoken of at all? The book opens by saying that a Tao (a Way) which can be walked or named is not the lasting one, and then speaks of it for eighty-one chapters.

The Tao is what was there before heaven and earth: still, formless, the mother of all things, and nameless, so that 'Tao' is only a label given for want of a name. It brings things forth and feeds them without owning or ruling them. It cannot be seen, heard or grasped, and its use lies in what is empty: the hub of a wheel, the hollow of a clay vessel, the door and windows of a room. Opposites give rise to each other, and the Tao returns once it has gone far. Those who know it, the book says, do not talk about it.

  • tao
  • cosmology
  • ineffability
  • paradox
  • complementarity
  • knowledge

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Acting without forcing

How can doing less get more done? The book's most famous claim is that the Tao (the Way) does nothing for the sake of doing it, and that for this reason nothing is left undone.

Non-action here is not idleness. It means acting without a private purpose, without clinging to the result and without struggling against the way things go. The sage does his work and does not rest in it as an achievement, and whoever grasps a thing loses it. Hard things are dealt with while they are easy and great things while they are small, since the tree that fills the arms grew from a tiny sprout. Learning adds something every day. Following the Tao takes something away every day, until nothing is done on purpose. Muddy water left still becomes clear.

  • non-action
  • stillness
  • non-contention
  • restraint
  • prudence

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Water and the low place

Why should the soft and weak win against the hard and strong? Water, which settles in the low place everyone dislikes, is the book's picture of how to live.

Nothing is softer or weaker than water, and nothing does better against what is firm and strong. Everyone knows it, the book says, and no one can put it into practice. A person is supple at birth and stiff at death, so hardness belongs with death and softness with life. A way of living follows: want little, know when to stop, do not display yourself, take the place behind. Three things are held precious: gentleness, economy, and shrinking from taking precedence over others. Whoever is content is rich, and whoever overcomes himself, not others, is mighty.

  • humility
  • simplicity
  • desire
  • moderation
  • contentment
  • self-knowledge
  • self-cultivation
  • compassion
  • sincerity
  • virtue

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Ruling by doing less

What does a ruler owe a people: more direction, or less? The book answers that the more laws and prohibitions there are, the poorer the people become and the more thieves appear.

Of the best rulers the people hardly knew that they existed, and when the work was done they said they had become what they were by themselves. Famine comes from the taxes consumed by those above. Weapons are instruments of evil omen, used only from necessity, and the victor takes his place as at a funeral. The same book wants the people kept simple and without much knowledge, in a small state whose inhabitants hear the neighbouring state and never visit it. Its opponents are the teachers of benevolence and righteousness, virtues it says appear only once the Way is lost.

  • governance
  • leadership
  • war
  • nonviolence
  • political authority
  • political philosophy
  • political power
  • law
  • trust

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Within this work

passages held
81
distinct concepts
163
by passages held, corpus-wide
#553

What this book thinks together

The wheel takes this book’s leading concepts and shows how often they come up together. The wider the band between two, the more of its passages speak of both. Among them, most often together: “humility” and “leadership”.
Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 23 pairings. 51 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
ConceptPaired conceptShared passages
humilityleadership9
political philosophythe way5
humilitytao4
desirepolitical philosophy3
governancetao3
humilitypolitical philosophy3
humilitythe way3
leadershippolitical philosophy3
governancepolitical philosophy2
humilitynon-action2
leadershipnon-action2
non-actionpolitical philosophy2
non-actiontao2
desiregovernance1
desirehumility1
desirenon-action1
desiretao1
governancehumility1
governanceleadership1
governancenon-action1
leadershipthe way1
non-actionthe way1
political philosophytao1

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

  1. -400 Tao Te Ching (道德經) you are here EN
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