The Tao Te Ching

The Way and Its Power

The Tao Te Ching — the Classic of the Way and Its Power — is 5,000 Chinese characters written in the 6th or 4th century BC, attributed to a sage named Laozi (the Old Master). It is the most translated book in history after the Bible. Its 81 short chapters describe the Tao: a nameless, formless ground of being that underlies all reality and cannot be grasped, only aligned with.

Codex Digital EditionComing soonEdition currently in preparation

Edition053

FormatDigital PDF

Editorial statusIn review

TraditionAncient Wisdom

Before you read

Context without the mythology.

Codex ISO separates the surviving evidence from later interpretation, so you can encounter the text without being told what to believe about it first.

01 / Historical context

6th–4th century BC, attributed to Laozi. Banned by Qin Shi Huang in the Great Burning of Books, 213 BC. Suppressed repeatedly under Confucian and Communist regimes.

02 / Why it matters

Burned by emperors. Suppressed by Communists. Still here.

From / associated with the text

““The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name.””

THE CODEX STANDARD

Source before story.

We identify the edition, translation and surviving evidence; distinguish documentation from tradition; and state uncertainty rather than turning it into a sales claim.

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Continue the archive

The Tao Te Ching

Context without the mythology.

Source before story.

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