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TAO TE CHING

Translated by James Legge, 1891 (Sacred Books of the East)

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MOST POPULARHardcover · First Printing13.25 × 10.25″ hardcover · free shipping$44.95was $56.95Two Hardcover First PrintingsTwo copies of the First Printing · one to keep, one to give$79.95was $89.90

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The Book That Traveled West

Five thousand characters. Still the one they reach for.

The story is this: Lao Tzu, leaving the Zhou court, reached the western pass. The border guard Yinxi would not let him go without writing down what he knew. The result was about five thousand characters: the Tao Te Ching.

It is the most translated book in the world, and most of the copies you can buy treat it like filler. Unattributed text. Shrunken scans. A cover that has nothing to do with the book.

This edition uses James Legge’s 1891 translation, names it, dates it, and prints it as a book you can keep.

Inside This Edition

More than a reprint. A restoration.

The Keeper of the Pass

Every translation of this book arrives carrying the same story, because there is only one story to tell. Sometime in the sixth century before the common era, an old man who kept the imperial archives at the court of Zhou decided he had had enough. The records say his name was Li Er, though history remembers him by his title: Lao Tzu, the “Old Master.” He saddled an ox and rode west, toward the mountain pass that marked the edge of the kingdom, intending to vanish from the records the way a man vanishes from a court he no longer serves.

The keeper of that pass was a man named Yinxi. Whether he recognized the old archivist or simply recognized wisdom when it tried to ride past him, the accounts don’t agree. What they agree on is what he did: he refused to open the gate until Lao Tzu had written down what he knew. Not a full accounting of a life. There wasn’t time for that, and the old man had no interest in giving it. The substance of his thought, compressed as far as it would compress.

What came out the other side was somewhere near five thousand characters, arranged in eighty-one short chapters, split into two unequal books: the Tao, on the nature of the way things are, and the Te, on how a person or a ruler might act in accordance with it. Lao Tzu handed the pages to Yinxi, rode through the gate, and, according to the legend, which is the only ending it has ever been given, was never seen again.

Chapter I, typeset from the Legge translation

Newly typeset, not a photocopy

The complete Legge text, reset in EB Garamond on cream book paper. Generous margins. Chapter openings with a quiet gold rule. The book you would have wanted on the shelf, not a scan of someone else’s.

The Object Itself

Built like it matters.

Format	13.25 × 10.25″ hardcover
Pages	Cream book paper, letterpress-style setting
Cover	Ink-black cover with gold double frame and mountain seal, printed ornamental design
Text	The complete Tao Te Ching, all 81 chapters
Translation	James Legge (Oxford, 1891), Sacred Books of the East, newly typeset, honestly attributed
Typography	Set in EB Garamond with display lines in Cormorant Garamond
Extras	Keeper of the Pass introduction · note on James Legge · First Printing limitation page
Made	Printed and bound to order in the USA · ships in ~2 weeks, tracked

Each copy is printed and bound individually for you. Small variations are the nature of a made-to-order book.

Why This Book Does Not Exist Anywhere Else

No other Tao Te Ching is built like this.

Cheap reprints flood the market because Legge’s translation is public domain. They copy the words, skip the credit, shrink the pages, and invent a cover. This edition is the opposite of that book.

The format. 13.25 × 10.25″ hardcover. A desk book, not a pocket reprint.
The text. All 81 chapters, newly typeset from Legge’s 1891 Sacred Books of the East. Named on the cover. Dated in the book.
The introduction. The Keeper of the Pass, written as history: Lao Tzu, Yinxi, five thousand characters. Sources named. No invented mysticism.
The printing. First Printing, made to order in the USA. Later copies will be marked. This one is first.
The honesty. Every claim on this page is a claim printed inside the book. That is how you tell it apart from the rest.

	This Edition	Typical Marketplace Reprint
The text	✓Complete: all 81 chapters	✗Abridged, mixed, or padded
Translator	✓Named: James Legge, 1891	✗Fake or missing translator names
Format	✓13.25 × 10.25″ hardcover	✗Mass-market paperback or tiny reprint
Typesetting	✓Newly set, readable book type	✗Shrunken scans of old pages
Introduction	✓Keeper of the Pass + Legge note	✗None, or unsourced mysticism
Edition claims	✓Honest: every source named & dated	✗Invented “ancient secrets” blurbs

Legge’s translation is in the public domain. That is why so many reprints copy it without credit. This edition uses it openly, names it, and dates it.

The complete, honest edition: $44.95

Free shipping · 365-day guarantee · $66.95 a copy once the First Printing closes October 31, 2026

James Legge, 1815–1897

Oxford’s first Professor of Chinese. His 1891 translation of the Tao Te Ching, published in the Sacred Books of the East, has been the recognized scholarly standard in English for more than a century. It is the text most cheap reprints copy without credit. This edition uses it openly, names it, and dates it.

Provenance, in full

Text: Tao Te Ching, complete, chapters 1–81
Translation: James Legge, The Tao Teh King (Oxford: Sacred Books of the East, 1891)
Original language: Classical Chinese, about five thousand characters
Transmission: the traditional account of Lao Tzu and the keeper of the pass, Yinxi
This edition: newly typeset and published by The Second Canon, MMXXVI; sources printed inside the book

The Tao Te Ching is having another century: on nightstands, in studios, and in the hands of people who have never read a word of Classical Chinese. This is the book they are reaching for. (We name the phenomenon. No one has endorsed this edition, and we won’t pretend otherwise.)

365-DAY

The 365-Day Guarantee

Read it. Sit with it. If at any point in the next 365 days you decide it wasn’t worth it, we refund the purchase price in full. No questions, no return-shipping games.

For the first 30 days, keep the book. We refund you and you send nothing back. From day 31 to day 365 the refund still stands, we just ask you to post the copy back. The clock starts on delivery, not on the order.

Why We Made This

We went looking for a Tao Te Ching worth owning and found a market full of fakes: no translator named, covers that have nothing to do with the text, photocopied pages you can barely read.
So we built the edition we wanted: the complete text, honestly attributed, typeset with care, printed in the USA. Every claim on this page survives the same scrutiny we point at the counterfeits.
The Second Canon

Questions

Everything you’d want to know

Is this the complete Tao Te Ching?

Yes: all 81 chapters, in two parts, the Tao and the Te. “Complete” is the whole point: most cheap reprints sell abridgements, mix translations, or pad the book with filler that does not belong.

Which translation is it?

James Legge (Oxford, 1891), published in the Sacred Books of the East. Legge was Oxford’s first Professor of Chinese. His translation has been the recognized scholarly standard in English for over a century. It is the same text many reprints copy without credit; we name it, date it, and typeset it properly.

When does it ship?

We ship free to the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia: shipping is included in the price, however many copies you order. Your copy is printed and bound to order. That is what makes the First Printing a real edition, not warehouse stock. Allow about 2 weeks from order to delivery, with tracking the whole way.

Is this a religious product? Is it endorsed by a temple or a scholar?

No. The Second Canon is an independent press. The Tao Te Ching is a foundational text of Taoist thought and a work of world literature. We present it with honest provenance and let you decide what it means. No temple, scholar, or public figure has endorsed this edition, and we’ll never imply otherwise.

What if I don’t love it?

The 365-Day Guarantee. For the first 30 days, keep the book: we refund you and you send nothing back. From day 31 to day 365 the refund still stands, we just ask you to post the copy back so it can go to someone who wants it. The clock starts on delivery, not on the order.

Is the cover real gold foil?

No, and we will say so proudly rather than let you find out later. The gold-frame mountain seal is a printed ornamental design on a matte casewrap cover. A foil-stamped collector’s edition may come later; First Printing owners will hear about it first.

The First Printing closes October 31, 2026.

The complete Tao Te Ching: $44.95 with free shipping now, $66.95 once the window closes. 365-day guarantee. Later printings are marked. This one is first.

Printed to order in the USA.

Not ready? The First Printing closes October 31, 2026. Get the first chapter + the window-close reminder.