Tao Te Ching

From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

"Tao Te Ching"
Traditional Chinese: 道德經
Simplified Chinese: 道德经
Pinyin romanization: Dào Dé Jīng
Wade-Giles romanization: Tao Te Ching
Zhuyin transcription: ㄉㄠˋ ㄉㄜˊ ㄐㄧㄥ

Tao Te Ching (Chinese: 道德經 [  Listen ?]) is the Chinese name of a book by a man named Laozi (or Lao Tzu, "Old Master"). Laozi was a sage, a wise man, and he was a record-keeper. The title can mean "The Book of the Way and its Virtue." People believed the book was written around 600 BCE.

It is an important text to Chinese culture. It is very important in Chinese philosophy (way of thinking) and religion. It is the main book for Taoism, which is both a philosophy and part of Chinese folk religion. It also influenced other philosophies in and around China.

Contents

[edit] The title

There are many ways to translate the book's title, because each Chinese word has a few meanings:

  • Dào/Tao 道 means "way", "road", "path", or "route," but was given the extra meaning "path ahead", "way forward", "method", "principle", or simply "the Way". This word was also used in different ways by other Chinese philosophers (including Confucius, Mencius, Mozi, and Hanfeizi). It has special meaning in Taoism, where it means the basic way of the universe (that can't really be explained).
  • Dé/Te 德 means "virtue" as in "personal character" or "inner strength". People who followed the teachings of Confucius used it to mean "morality". A long time ago in English, "virtue" could mean "power" (as in the phrase "healing virtue of a drug"). The same thing was true in Chinese: the word meant "power" a long time ago but now means "virtue".
  • Jīng/Ching 經 originally meant "norm", "rule", or "plan", was given the extra meaning "scripture", "great book", or "classic".

[edit] Translations

The Tao Te Ching is the second most translated book in history, behind only the Bible. Why are there hundreds of translations? The text is short. The language is purposely not clear, because the author is talking about things that are hard to describe. There are many interpretations, or ways to understand what the book says.

[edit] Online English versions

[edit] Online multilingual versions


This short article can be made longer. You can help Wikipedia by adding to it.