Tao Te Ching translations


The Tao Te Ching is a very beautiful learning and meditation book. It is like a zen koan: either you dismiss it as nonsense, or you have to dig in to understand it. It immediately takes you out of that intellectual confinement of getting stuck with ideas, with what you think you know.

 (Chungliang Al Huang) 

Tao Te Ching

Each translation/adaptation highlights different nuances of this sophisticated text:

The Essential Tao translated by Thomas Cleary

Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching by Timothy Freke

The New Lao Tzu translated by Ray Grigg

The Little Book of Tao Te Ching translated by John R Mabry

The Tai Chi Journey by John Lash

The Tao of Being by Ray Grigg

The Tao Speaks: Lao Tzu's Whispers of Wisdom by Chih Chung Tsai

Tao Te Ching translated by Ralph Alan Dale

Tao Te Ching translated by Gia-Fu Feng & Jane English

Tao Te Ching translated by Man-Ho Kwok & Martin Palmer

Tao Te Ching translated by D C Lau

Tao Te Ching translated by Ursula K Le Guin

Tao Te Ching translated by Stephen Mitchell

Tao Te Ching translated by Arthur Whaley

Tao Te Ching translated by Richard Wilhelm

Tao Te Ching translated by John C H Wu

The Tao Te Ching and The Christian Way translated by Joseph Petulla

The Texts of Taoism Vol 1 & 2 translated by James Legge

Reading further

There are many more translations than the ones listed here. Some are available for free on-line.

The Tao Te Ching is a lucid masterpiece on the art of living.

 (Doug Marsh)

The Way of Chuang Tzu has also been adapted and translated in a similar fashion to Tao Te Ching and there is much merit to be found in reading the different versions.


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Page created 2 November 2001