The Daode jing ("Book of the Dao and Its Virtue") is an essential work in both traditional Chinese culture and world philosophy. This guide provides an overview of the text, presenting its historical unfolding, its major concepts, and its contemporary use.

Livia Kohn, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita of Religion and East Asian Studies at Boston University. The author or editor of over 40 books, she now lives in Florida, serves as the executive editor of the Journal of Daoist Studies, and runs various workshops and conferences.

• Introduction


• PART I: THE TEXT


• Chapter 1: Times and Authorship


• The Axial Age


• The Warring States


• Confucianism


• Yin-Yang Cosmology


• Laozi


• The Laozi Legend


• Divinization


• Chapter 2: Textual Development


• Language


• Texts in Tombs


• Guodian


• Mawangdui


• Heshang gong


• Standardization


• Wang Bi


• Chapter 3: General Principles


• Dao


• Cosmic Unfolding


• Natural Dynamics


• Self-Being


• Virtue


• Images and Metaphors


• Chapter 4: Social Application


• Nonaction


• Social Reality


• Sufficiency


• Humility and Simplicity


• Clarity and Stillness


• Sagehood


• PART II: TRADITIONAL EXPANSIONS


• Chapter 5: Communities and Politics


• Primitivism


• Self-Cultivation


• Longevity Techniques


• Inward Training


• The Jixia Academy


• Syncretism and Huang-Lao


• Masters of Methods


• Chapter 6: Devotional Activation


• Early Recitation


• The Celestial Masters


• Immortality


• Meditation


• Ritual Veneration


• Ordination


• Integrated Practice


• Chapter 7: Commentary Exegeses


• The Nature of Commentaries


• Ideal Rulership


• Personal Self-Cultivation


• Original Nonbeing


• Western Ascension


• Mystical Attainment


• Chapter 8: Later Developments


• Twofold Mystery


• Imperial Attention


• Song Huizong


• Internal Alchemy


• Daode jing Readings


• Clarity and Stillness


• The Qingjing jing


• PART III: MODERN RECEPTION


• Chapter 9: China Today


• Religious Veneration


• Academic Study


• Intellectual Engagement


• Politics and Education


• Ecology


• Cognitive Therapy


• Self-Help


• Chapter 10: In the World


• Eastern Transmission


• Early Western Reception


• Seeing Dao


• Philosophical Adaptation


• Popular Understanding


• Multiple Readings


• Chapter 11: English Translations


• Types of Translations


• Literal Translations


• Historical Scholarship


• Philosophical Readings


• Poetic Versions


• Social Applications


• Self-Help Manuals


• Whimsical Renditions


• Chapter 12: Western Adaptations


• Daoist Leadership


• Doing Business


• Ecology


• The Tao of . . .


• Literary Allegories


• Songs of Dao