Tao Te Ching : An All-New Translation

Renowned translator William Scott Wilson offers a fresh version of this Chinese classic, with an approachable and inspiring translation that will resonate with the modern reader. While most translators have relied on the "new" text of 200 BC, Wilson plunged back 300 years to 500 BC to translate from the original characters used during Lao Tsu's lifetime. As the original text was lost, this required detective work on Wilson's part to reassemble, in puzzle-like fashion, as much of the original text as possible. With the use of the newer characters 300 years later, the nuance of the original text shifted in a number of places, and Wilson, where he can, offers fresh and revealing nuances of this classic work unexplored to this point.

WILLIAM SCOTT WILSON is the bestselling translator of many spiritual and Asian classics, including Hagakure, The Book of Five Rings, and The Unencumbered Spirit: Reflections of a Chinese Sage. He is also the author of The Lone Samurai, the biography of samurai swordsman Miyamoto Musashi.