(I)

Tao Te Ching (《道德經》, or Dao De Jing), presumably written by Laozi (老子) of the 6th century BC, is one of the most famous and influential philosophical works in Chinese history. Being the foundational canon of Taoism (道家), Tao Te Ching outlines the characteristics and roles of the fundamental Tao (道) and its Te (德, Manifestation of Tao) in the formation and maintenance of all in the Universe. Written in fewer than 6000 Chinese characters, Tao Te Ching also depicts the underlying nature of governance and some natural laws, which, remarkably, include modern scientific concepts such as atomic theory, chemical equilibrium, polarities, as well as the quantum uncertainty principle. Accordingly, despite its age of over 2500 years, Tao Te Ching remains a monumental text that must be read by all.

(II)

Unfortunately, Tao Te Ching is often misinterpreted by many for more than two thousand years. Their failures can largely be categorized into four types:

(III)

As such, this book aims to provide readers with a clear, concise, consistent, and correct English translation and interpretation of Tao Te Ching, which is presented here in a line-by-line format accompanied by 674 footnotes. Footnotes include justifications and references for interpreting key Chinese characters as well as brief discussions on various general misinterpretations. Further, to facilitate easy reading, the bare translated text is supplemented in a separate section, while the correct interpretation of difficult and complex sentences in vernacular Chinese (《道德經》艱深句子正解並白話對譯) in another.

Kwan Sheung Vincent Poon (潘君尚, 1979-) was born in Hong Kong and studied at Ying Wa College as well as the University of Toronto, where he completed his BSc, MSc and BEd degrees. Being the top undergraduate in Biochemistry, he published numerous biochemistry research papers and is currently a teacher at...