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Photography by Jane English

Calligraphy by Gia-fu Feng

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Translated byGia-fu FengandJane EnglishwithToinette Lippe

Introduction by Jacob Needleman

vintage books a division of random house, inc., new york

Lao Tsu

TAO TE

CHING

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THIRD VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION: October 2011

Certain material copyright 1997, 2011 by Jane EnglishCopyright 1972 by Jane English and Gia-fu Feng, copyright renewed 2000 by Jane Englishand Carol WilsonIntroduction copyright 1989 by Jacob NeedlemanForeword copyright 2011 by Toinette Lippe

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Publishedin the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc. New York, and inCanada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in differentform simultaneously by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and Vintage Books, New York, in 1972, andsubsequently by Vintage Books in 1989 and in 1997.

The foreword published here is adapted and expanded from an essay originally published inThe Collegiate Reviewin Fall 1985.

The introduction included here is an abridged version of the introduction that appeared in the1989 edition of the Tao Te Ching

The Library of Congress has catalogued the original edition as follows:

Lao-tzuTao te chingI Feng, Gia-fu, tr. II English, Jane, tr. III Title[BL1900.L3 F46 1972b] 299'.51'482 72-2338

ISBN: 978-0-307-94930-1vintagebooks.com

Printed in the United States of America

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Thirty-six

That which shrinks

Must first expand.That which fails

Must first be strong.

That which is cast downMust first be raised.

Before receiving

There must be giving.

This is called perception of the nature of things.Soft and weak overcome hard and strong.

Fish cannot leave deep water,And a countrys weapons should not be displayed.

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Sixty-four

Peace is easily maintained;

Trouble is easily overcome before it starts.

The brittle is easily shattered;

The small is easily scattered.

Deal with things before they happen.

Put things in order before there is confusion.

A tree as great as a mans embrace springs from a small shoot;

A terrace nine stories high begins with a pile of earth;A journey of a thousand miles starts under ones feet.

Those who act defeat their own purpose;

Those who grasp lose.

The wise do not act and so are not defeated.They do not grasp and therefore do not lose.

People usually fail when they are on the verge of success.

So give as much care to the end as to the beginning;Then there will be no failure.

Therefore the wise seek freedom from desire.

They do not collect precious things.They learn not to hold on to ideas.

They bring people back to what they have lost.

They help the ten thousand things find their own nature,Yet they refrain from action.

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