Tao Te Ching The Classic Book of Integrity and The Way

Written during the golden age of Chinese philosophy, and composed partly in prose and partly in verse, the "Tao Te Ching" is surely the most terse and economical of the world's great religious texts. In a series of short, profound chapters it elucidates the idea of the Tao, or the Way- an idea that in its ethical, practical, and spiritual dimensions has become essential to the life of China's enormously powerful civilization. In the process of this elucidation, - Lao-- tzu both clarifies and deepens those central religious mysteries around which our life on earth revolves. Translation of the Ma Wang Tui Manuscripts by D. C. Lau

Victor H. Mair is a translator of Chinese texts including Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching: The Classic Book of Integrity and the Way. He is also the editor of the Cambria Sinophone World series and the co-author of The True History of Tea. Mair is Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has been teaching since 1979.

The way of life defined in the Tao Te Ching was developed by ancient sages who lived in China some two thousand years ago. Lao Tzu, known as the Old One, was one such sage who practiced "the way," although there were almost certainly other religious thinkers who contributed further ideas and wisdom to it.