The cover page is adapted from The Kangxi Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour, Scroll Three: Ji’nan to Mount Tai, a painting completed in 1698 by Wang Hui. The cover and title pages feature the League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by The League of Moveable Type. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Hui_(Qing_dynasty)www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/
Tao Te Ching
Chapters (7)
- Preface by James Legge 0:00
- Was Taoism Older Than Laozi? 17:39
- The Texts of the Tao Te Ching and Chuang-Tzŭ Shu, as Regards Their Authenticity and Genuineness, and the Arrangement of Them 23:48
- What Is the Meaning of the Name Tao? And the Chief Points of the Belief in Taoism 36:54
- Accounts of Laozi and Chuang-Tzŭ Given by Ssŭ-Ma Chʽien 1:26:03
- Part I 1:38:15
- Part II 2:11:26
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The Tao Te Ching is a classic Chinese text written around the 6th century BC by Laozi, a Zhou-dynasty courtier. While its authorship is debated, the text remains a fundamental building block of Taoism and one of the most influential works of its time. Today it’s one of the most-translated works in the world.
The work itself is a series of 81 short poetic sections, each one written in a fluid, ambiguous style, leaving them open to wide interpretation. Subjects range from advice to those in power to advice to regular people and adages for daily living. Because of its ambiguous nature the Tao Te Ching is famously difficult to translate, and many, if not all, translations are significantly influenced by the translator’s state of mind. This translation is by James Legge, a famous Scottish sinologist and the first professor of Chinese at Oxford University.