Tao Te Ching
The Tao and its Characteristics
- Attributed to
- Laozi
- Translated by
- James Legge
- Chapters
- 81
- This translation
- 1891
Free of copyright worldwide. The translator died in 1897, and this translation was published in 1891. Even under the longest copyright term in the world — the author's life plus 100 years, which applies in Mexico — the text has been free since 1998. Source scan
Every chapter is free to read in Taoist Diary, with no account and no ads. Listening — the narrated chapters and the daily audio — is the subscription, at $1.99 a month.
How it opens
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.
Tao Te Ching · Embodying the Tao · translated by James Legge
Before you start
- Is Tao Te Ching free to read?
- Yes — all 81 chapters, with no account and no ads. James Legge's translation is out of copyright worldwide, so there is nothing to buy in order to read it. The paid part of Taoist Diary is listening: the narrated chapters and the daily audio, at $1.99 a month.
- Which translation is this?
- James Legge's, published in 1891. It is not modernised, paraphrased or trimmed — the sentences are his. The scan it was taken from is linked above, so any line here can be checked against it.
- How long is it?
- 81 chapters, listed in full below — Embodying the Tao through The Manifestation of Simplicity. Most are short enough to read in a sitting, which is how the app serves them: one at a time, one a day.
Read closely: what we've written about Tao Te Ching
- Water in the Tao Te Ching: What the Image Actually Argues10 passages quoted from this book
- What Does Wu Wei Mean? Non-Action in the Tao Te Ching9 passages quoted from this book
- The Uncarved Block in Taoism: What Legge Actually Calls It5 passages quoted from this book
- What Is Te in the Tao Te Ching? The Word Legge Refused to Call Virtue4 passages quoted from this book
- Stoicism and Taoism: The Difference, Read Side by Side2 passages quoted from this book
The 81 chapters
- 1Embodying the Tao
- 2The Nourishment of the Person
- 3Keeping the People at Rest
- 4The Fountainless
- 5The Use of Emptiness
- 6The Completion of Material Forms
- 7Sheathing the Light
- 8The Placid and Contented Nature
- 9Fulness and Complacency contrary to the Tao
- 10Possibilities through the Tao
- 11The Use of what has no Substantive Existence
- 12The Repression of the Desires
- 13Loathing Shame
- 14The Manifestation of the Mystery
- 15The Exhibition of the Qualities of the Tao
- 16Returning to the Root
- 17The Unadulterated Influence
- 18The Decay of Manners
- 19Returning to the Unadulterated Influence
- 20Being Different from Ordinary Men
- 21The Empty Heart, or the Tao in its Operation
- 22The Increase granted to Humility
- 23Absolute Vacancy
- 24Painful Graciousness
- 25Representations of the Mystery
- 26The Quality of Gravity
- 27Dexterity in Using the Tao
- 28Returning to Simplicity
- 29Taking no Action
- 30A Caveat against War
- 31Stilling War
- 32The Tao with no Name
- 33Discriminating between Attributes
- 34The Task of Achievement
- 35The Attribute of Benevolence
- 36Minimising the Light
- 37The Exercise of Government
- 38About the Attributes of the Tao
- 39The Origin of the Law
- 40Dispensing with the Use (of Means)
- 41Sameness and Difference
- 42The Transformations of the Tao
- 43The Universal Use of the Action in Weakness of the Tao
- 44Cautions
- 45Great or Overflowing Virtue
- 46The Moderating of Desire or Ambition
- 47Surveying what is Far-off
- 48Forgetting Knowledge
- 49The Quality of Indulgence
- 50The Value set on Life
- 51The Operation (of the Tao) in Nourishing Things
- 52Returning to the Source
- 53Increase of Evidence
- 54The Cultivation of the Tao, and the Observation of its Effects
- 55The Mysterious Charm
- 56The Mysterious Excellence
- 57The Genuine Influence
- 58Transformation according to Circumstances
- 59Guarding the Tao
- 60Occupying the Throne
- 61The Attribute of Humility
- 62Practising the Tao
- 63Thinking in the Beginning
- 64Guarding the Minute
- 65Pure, unmixed Excellence
- 66Putting One’s Self Last
- 67Three Precious Things
- 68Matching Heaven
- 69The Use of the Mysterious (Tao)
- 70The Difficulty of being (rightly) Known
- 71The Disease of Knowing
- 72Loving One’s Self
- 73Allowing Men to take their Course
- 74Restraining Delusion
- 75How Greediness Injures
- 76A Warning against (Trusting in) Strength
- 77The Way of Heaven
- 78Things to be Believed
- 79Adherence to Bond or Covenant
- 80Standing Alone
- 81The Manifestation of Simplicity