The Tao Te Ching (Wade-Giles romanization), Daodejing (pinyin romanization), or Classic of the Way and Its Virtue or Power (道德經)—also known as the the Laozi (老子), the Sutra of the Way and Its Virtue or Power (道德真經, Daode Zhenjing), or the 5000-Character Classic (五千文, Wuqian Wen)—is a seminal Chinese Taoist text traditionally ascribed to a 6th-century BCE sage known as Laozi (Lao-Tzu, Lao-Tze, or Lao-Tse) or the "Old Master”, the founder of philosophical Taoism.

The text's true authorship and date of composition or compilation are uncertain, although the oldest excavated text dates back to the late 4th century BCE.

This book collects some of the earliest English translations of the Tao Te Ching in one volume. The editions are included as originally published without editorial revision.

Included in this edition are the following translations of Laozi's Daodeqing:

1. Tâo Teh King - The Tao and Its Characteristics Translated by James Legge


2. The Canon of Reason and Virtue (Lao-tze's Tao Teh King) in Chinese and English Translated by D.T. Suzuki & Paul Carus


3. Laotzu's Tao and Wu Wei Translated by Dwight Goddard also including Wu Wei an Interpretation by Henri Borel Translated by M.E. Reynolds


4. Tao Tê Ching Translated by Ch'u Ta-Kao


5. Tao Te King Translated by Isabella Mears


6. The Tao Teh King - A Short Study in Comparative Religion Translated by C. Spurgeon Medhurst


7. The Book of the Simple Way of Laotze, The Contemporary of Confucius, China, B.C. 604, A New Translation from the Text of the Tao-Teh-King by Walter Gorn Old


8. The Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity, and Morality of the "Old Philosopher" Lau-tsze Translated by John Chalmers


9. The Sayings of Lao Tzu Translated by Lionel Giles


10. Gems of Chinese Literature - Lao Tzŭ-Sayings Translated by Herbert Allen Giles

May these texts inspire and enlighten you as they have so many others.