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Book · ◇ Light

Tao Te Ching

coreattestedc. 4th century BCETaoism

Foundational text of Taoism, attributed to Laozi.

Influence92

Antiquity87

Wisdom87

Mystery79

✦Signature powerThe WordIts verses bind, guide, and outlive the hands that wrote them.

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Voices & connections

Figures bound to Tao Te Ching, family and rivals within the myth, and the thinkers and writers who shaped how we know them.

The Taomentions Laozifeatures

Read the story

Illustrated chapters where Tao Te Ching appears. Start reading in a click.

Illustrated storyThe Old Master and the GateEvery other story in this archive is a war of light against dark. This one is the tradition that refused the war. An old archivist, sick of a corrupt age, rides west on an ox to vanish from the world, and a gatekeeper will not let him pass until he writes down what he knows. The five thousand characters he leaves are the Tao Te Ching: the way of water, the empty hub, the dark and the light as one turning circle.Begin reading →