Which Tao Te Ching translation to read
The Tao Te Ching is about five thousand Chinese characters long, and it has been translated into English more often than almost any other book. Its lines are short and open to more than one reading, so translators have to decide how much to explain, and the results range from close scholarly work to free poems loosely based on the Chinese. Neither end is wrong; they are useful for different things.
Scryway’s library has two older translations you can read free: James Legge’s (1891) and Dwight Goddard’s (1919), side by side. These are the modern ones worth owning.
Stephen Mitchell: the most read
Mitchell’s 1988 version is the best-selling English Tao Te Ching, and it reads beautifully. He worked from existing translations and calls his book a version, and it is free with the text in places, sometimes adding images and ideas of his own. A good book to fall in love with the Tao Te Ching through; check a closer translation before you lean on any one line.
Ursula K. Le Guin: a poet’s rendering
Le Guin read the Tao Te Ching all her life and made her version with the help of the scholar J. P. Seaton. It is plain, wry and often funny, with short notes on chapters she found puzzling or wanted to argue with. Like Mitchell’s it is a rendering more than a strict translation, and for many readers it is the most likeable.
D. C. Lau: the plain scholarly translation
Lau’s Penguin Classics translation has been in print since 1963. It sticks closely to the Chinese, keeps the language simple and comes with a careful introduction to Laozi and the text. If you want to know what the book actually says, this is the place to start.
Red Pine: with two thousand years of commentary
Red Pine (Bill Porter) gives each chapter in Chinese and English, followed by comments from Chinese readers across two millennia, from early Daoist masters to modern scholars. It is the best way to see how the book has been read in China, and the most rewarding to study slowly.
Addiss and Lombardo: spare and close
Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo keep the brevity of the Chinese, often only a few words to a line, and add Addiss’s ink paintings. Of the translations here it feels most like the original on the page: terse, open, and leaving the reader to do the work.
Gia-fu Feng and Jane English: words and pictures
First published in 1972, this edition pairs Feng’s translation and calligraphy with Jane English’s black-and-white photographs of landscapes. The English is simple and close to the Chinese, and the book is as much for looking at as for reading.
Where to start
- For a first reading: Le Guin or Mitchell, with Lau beside you for the hard lines.
- For study: Lau, then Red Pine.
- For a sense of the original’s shape on the page: Addiss and Lombardo.
Comparing even two translations of one chapter shows how much room the text leaves. You can do that free with Legge and Goddard here.