Audiobook · read by volunteers
Tao Teh King
Lao Tzu
Read by Eric S. Piotrowski · 9 chapters · 1 h 34
About the book
Few books are as short, and few have been read as long. The Tao Teh King, attributed to the sage Lao Tzu, is a set of brief, paradoxical reflections on the Way, the nameless principle that underlies all things. It speaks of strength that lies in softness, of power that comes from yielding, of the usefulness of emptiness, and of the wisdom of rulers who govern lightly. Presence and absence, life and death, high and low, are shown not as enemies but as partners. This recording presents an English version from the late nineteenth century in nine sections, read by a single LibriVox volunteer. At about an hour and a half, it is easy to take in stages, one thought at a time, and then return to. A good companion for slow listening.
Introduction
The Tao Teh King, more often spelled Tao Te Ching today, is the foundational text of Taoism and one of the most translated books in the world. It is traditionally attributed to Lao Tzu, whose name means something like the old master, and who is said to have lived in ancient China around the sixth century before our era. Scholars debate whether he was a single historical person, and the traditional dating to the sixth century BC should be taken as an estimate rather than a fixed fact.
The text is made up of eighty-one short chapters, in verse or in poetic prose. They speak about the Tao, the Way, an ineffable force behind the natural world, and about how a person, and especially a ruler, can live in harmony with it. Its central images are water, which overcomes the hard by yielding, and the empty space inside a bowl or a room, which is what makes it useful. The tone is quiet, paradoxical and often startlingly modern.
This recording uses the English translation by James Legge (1815-1897), published in 1891, one of the Victorian versions that introduced the book to Western readers. It is divided into nine sections of about nine chapters each, and lasts about an hour and a half. A single LibriVox volunteer reads it.
The text is not meant to be consumed in a rush. Listen to one section, pause, and let a line or two stay with you. It has a long and varied history of interpretation, from philosophy to statecraft to personal reflection, and it rewards patience. Whether you come to it as a student of philosophy, a reader of world literature or someone who simply likes a short, strange book, it rewards a second visit.
Public domain
Lao Tzu died in 550: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text