The 81 Chapters
The whole of the Tao Te Ching — each chapter in James Legge’s 1891 translation, beside Dao De Kooi, an original contemporary rendering. The chapters stand alone — you can begin anywhere.
Chapter titles added by Learn the Dao.
- 1The Nameless Origin
- 2The Rise of Opposites
- 3Emptying the Mind
- 4The Fountainless Vessel
- 5Heaven's Impartial Bellows
- 6The Valley Spirit
- 7Long Enduring by Self-Forgetting
- 8The Excellence of Water
- 9The Peril of Fullness
- 10Embracing the One
- 11The Use of Emptiness
- 12The Senses and the Belly
- 13Favour and Disgrace Alike Feared
- 14The Formless Form
- 15The Ancient Masters of the Tao
- 16Returning to the Root
- 17The Best of Rulers Unnoticed
- 18When the Great Tao Is Lost
- 19Renouncing Cleverness
- 20Alone Among the Multitude
- 21The Nature of the Tao
- 22The Partial Made Whole
- 23Nature's Brief Storms
- 24Tiptoe Does Not Stand Firm
- 25Something Undefined and Complete
- 26Gravity the Root of Lightness
- 27Hiding the Light of Procedure
- 28The Return to Simplicity
- 29The Kingdom Cannot Be Grasped
- 30Against the Sway of Arms
- 31Arms as Instruments of Evil Omen
- 32The Nameless Simplicity
- 33Knowing Others, Knowing Oneself
- 34The Great Tao Flows Everywhere
- 35The Great Image
- 36The Soft Overcomes the Hard
- 37The Tao's Constant Non-Action
- 38On Attributes, Higher and Lower
- 39Things That Have Attained Oneness
- 40The Movement of the Tao
- 41Scholars High, Middle, and Low
- 42One, Two, Three, and All Things
- 43The Advantage of Doing Nothing
- 44Fame, Life, and Wealth
- 45Great Perfection Seems Incomplete
- 46When the Tao Prevails
- 47Knowing Without Travelling
- 48Daily Decrease Toward the Tao
- 49The Sage Has No Fixed Mind
- 50Life, Death, and the Rhinoceros
- 51The Tao Nourishes All Things
- 52Guarding the Mother
- 53Robbers and Boasters
- 54What Is Well Planted
- 55The Infant's Undivided Virtue
- 56The Mysterious Agreement
- 57Governing by Non-Action
- 58Good Fortune Beside Misery
- 59Moderation and Long Endurance
- 60Governing as Cooking Small Fish
- 61The Great State's Low Place
- 62The Tao as the World's Treasure
- 63Acting Without Acting
- 64A Single Step Begins the Journey
- 65Simplicity Over Cunning
- 66Why Rivers and Seas Are Kings
- 67Three Precious Things
- 68The Virtue of Not Contending
- 69The Guest, Not the Host
- 70Easy Words, Rarely Practised
- 71Knowing That We Do Not Know
- 72When the People Fear No Longer
- 73Heaven's Wide, Unfailing Net
- 74The Great Carpenter of Death
- 75Taxed into Famine
- 76The Soft and the Strong
- 77The Bow of Heaven
- 78Water's Hidden Strength
- 79No Partiality in Heaven's Way
- 80The Small State, Content
- 81Sincere Words Are Not Fine