Shopping cart
Your cart empty!
Tao Te Ching
The bestselling, widely acclaimed translation from Stephen Mitchell
"Mitchell's rendition of the Tao Te Ching comes as close to being definitive for our time as any I can imagine. It embodies the virtues its translator credits to the Chinese original: a gemlike lucidity that is radiant with humor, grace, largeheartedness, and deep wisdom." — Huston Smith, author of The Religions of Man
In eighty-one brief chapters, Lao-tzu's Tao Te Ching, or Book of the Way, provides advice that imparts balance and perspective, a serene and generous spirit, and teaches us how to work for the good with the effortless skill that comes from being in accord with the Tao—the basic principle of the universe.
More Books from Stephen Mitchell & Lao Tzu
Reviews
A very thoughtful translation and a very engaging book. I highly recommend it.
By JJ bbghtf
Incredible book. Best translation of the Tao.
By MFRWD
The translation was fine. The parables were fine. The message and lessons work. I suppose I was hoping for more than a series of statements that you’d find embroidered on a pillow. Not to denigrate the Taoist belief, which I whole-heartedly embrace, but I was hoping for a bit more in the way of some practical application of the text.
By filmguyryan
I enjoyed the audio version very much. Due to the interpreter’s knowledge of Chinese language and culture, or the lack of them, some chapters are so beautifully translated that they not only sound like music but also deepen my understanding of this great book (e.g. Chapter 11), some, though quite diverted from the original meaning (e.g. Chapter 25 and Chapter 36), are still wise in themselves, and the others, (e.g. Chapter 50), are completely misunderstood and therefore the opposite to what Laotzu tries to teach... The translator is great and sincere in sharing his feelings and experience of reading this script, but, alas, his experience is biased and incomplete in many aspects...
By KeeperofUnderworld
I have read no other translation but Mitchell’s and I believe this one to be divinely inspired. Like all spiritual texts, it must be treated as a living document - entrusted with all the wisdom of the sages previous and future, for it is also timeless, and only a teacher who has devoted years to a contemplative way of living will have the intelligence and heart necessary to broaden its appeal and clarify it’s call for individuals to honor that “indivisibility” and look inside themselves to “change the[ir] world”.
By FloydianEngineer