The Tâo and Its Characteristics

The Taoist canon, the Daodejing, has been translated many times, but the version by the great translator James Legge is one of the best, but also one of the least known. This edition includes the full text of Legge’s translation of the Lao-Tzu classic, along with the full Chinese text of the original.

James Legge was a Scotsman who played an enormously important role in introducing, integrating, and explaining China's classics and the wisdom they contain into the global mainstream of thought. He translated, with the help of Chinese assistants, virtually all the great works from China's past including two most puzzling, but possibly the most significant of all the Chinese classics, The Book of Changes and the Taoist Manual, the Daodejing. In 1876, he became the first Professor of Chinese at Oxford University, a post he held until his death. Graham Earnshaw is a writer, musician, and businessman who began his career in China in the 1970s as a journalist. He has written several books, including On Your Own in China and Tales of Old Shanghai. He set up China's first rock band and has recorded several albums of his own songs. He currently resides in Shanghai, where he runs his company SinoMedia Ltd.