In the 19th century Wade-Giles system for romanizing Chinese, 道德經 was transliterated Tao Te Ching. This became a well-established title in the Roman-alphabet world. The pinyin system introduced over 50 years ago, and now standard, renders it somewhat more accurately as Daodejing.

Dào (道 pronounced with a falling tone) means the way, path, or a synonym of these. Dé (德 pronounced “duh” with a rising tone) means virtue, personal character, inner strength, virtuosity, or integrity. Its semantics is most similar to virtue, related to the archaic virtù conveying a sense of inner potency or divine power, which later developed the modern meaning of moral excellence or goodness. Jīng (經 pronounced with a hard J and a high tone) means canon, great book, or classic. Daodejing (way-virtue-classic) can thus be amplified in translation as “The Great Book of the Way and of its Power and Virtue.”

According to tradition, the Daodejing was written around the 6th century BCE by the sage Laozi, a record-keeper in the Zhou Dynasty court. Laozi (老子 pronounced “lao tzuh”) means the Old Master. In China the text is known simply as the Laozi. The existence of Laozi and the date and origins of the text are disputed. The Daodejing is written in Classical Chinese, which is terse, ambiguous, and difficult to understand even for well-educated native speakers. Many terms in the Daodejing are deliberately vague.

The Dao (Tao) as a concept signifies the primordial essence or fundamental nature of the universe. Dao is not a ‘name’ for a ‘thing,’ but the underlying natural order of everything, difficult to describe and “forever nameless” (Ch. 32). The Dao is not only part of philosophical Daoism, and Daoism as a religion, but also Confucianism, some types of Buddhism, and more broadly East Asian philosophy and religion in general.

There are several significant themes in the text. Its opening lines suggest that the Dao is ineffable—nameless, beyond description, transcending language—and the origin of everything. Related is the concept of the enigmatic female (Ch. 6), emphasizing yin (陰), the passive, still values in nature (vs. yang [陽] the active, energetic ones). Elsewhere the text suggests that yin and yang must be balanced (Ch. 28). Of great importance is the concept of wúwéi, (無為) non-action or non-doing (Ch. 2). This is not the same as doing nothing. Living things grow and planets orbit without intentionally doing. An athlete ‘in the zone’ acts spontaneously and effectively without any conscious doing. Another possible translation is effortless action. Related to this is emptiness (Ch. 11). The Daodejing praises humble self-knowledge (Ch. 33) as opposed to ‘book learning’ (“intelligence” in Ch. 18, “learning” in Ch. 48). Turning back or returning to oneness with the primordial is also important (Ch. 40), while death is associated with rigidity and life with flexibility (Ch. 76). A past and potential golden age of satisfaction in simplicity is also suggested (Ch. 80).

The 81 short poems of this great classic of human heritage range from political advice for rulers to practical wisdom for ordinary people. The variety of possible understandings is practically limitless, not only for different people, but for one individual over time.