---
product_id: 47532862
title: "Tao Te Ching (Penguin Great Ideas) Paperback – October 26, 2010"
brand: "lao tzu"
price: "$23.27"
currency: USD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 5
url: https://www.desertcart.ec/products/47532862-tao-te-ching-penguin-great-ideas-paperback-october-26-2010
store_origin: EC
region: Ecuador
---

# Tao Te Ching (Penguin Great Ideas) Paperback – October 26, 2010

**Brand:** lao tzu
**Price:** $23.27
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Tao Te Ching (Penguin Great Ideas) Paperback – October 26, 2010 by lao tzu
- **How much does it cost?** $23.27 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ec](https://www.desertcart.ec/products/47532862-tao-te-ching-penguin-great-ideas-paperback-october-26-2010)

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- lao tzu enthusiasts

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## Description

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## Images

![Tao Te Ching (Penguin Great Ideas) Paperback – October 26, 2010 - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61l2PIIuvfL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Tao
*by K***J on January 23, 2017*

This was as a gift. Was well received.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Five Stars
*by H***H on February 19, 2016*

Great!

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent, aging like fine wine
*by D***L on June 15, 2013*

This is the book that introduced me to the Tao back in the 1960s. I was immediately much attracted to its contrarian and paradoxical nature. I can even recall being especially "enlightened" when reading Chapter XXXIII. (Lau uses old-fashioned Roman numerals.) I still have the Penguin Classics paperback from 1970 (5th printing) with its now yellowed pages. Here's that chapter as Lau expressed it:"He who knows others is clever;He who knows himself has discernment.He who overcomes others has force;He who overcomes himself is strong.He who knows contentment is rich;He who perseveres is a man of purpose;He who does not lose his station will endure;He who lives out his days has had a long life"I kind of liked the tautology in the last line, but now believe that "He who overcomes himself is strong" is an understatement.The "Center Tao" on the Web has the following as a word for word translation:"Knowledge of people is resourceful,Knowledge of self is honesty.Victory over others is power,Victory over self is striving.Being content is wealth.Striving to prevail is will.Not losing place is endurance.Dead, but not gone,This is longevity."Notice the contradictory sense in the last couplet: this is why something is always lost and/or gained in translation!Here's how the gifted Stephen Mitchell handles the chapter (from his books "Tao Te Ching" (2006) and "Tao Te Ching Lao Tzu: An Illustrated Journey" (1999):"Knowing others is intelligence;knowing yourself is true wisdom.Mastering others is strength;mastering yourself is true power.If you realize that you have enough,you are truly rich.If you stay in the centerand embrace death with your whole heart,you will endure forever."I like the "true wisdom" and "true power" of knowing and mastering yourself best.Lau's book includes a 46-page Introduction; two appendices, one on "The Problem of Authorship," the other on "The Nature of the Work"; a list of passages for comparison; a chronological table; a glossary and several pages of endnotes. Lau refers to the book as "the Lao Tzu" and writes "...in Chinese there is no linguistic distinction between the two and so it is impossible to know whether it is the man or the book that is referred to when the name `Lao Tzu' occurs." (p. 15)I want to add that if you're reading the Tao for the first time (or even the tenth) and find it a bit confusing and contradictory you are not alone. The exaggerations and understatements, the seeming contradictions and the sometimes outrageous claims fairly shock the intellect. But that is part of what the Tao is all about. Like Zen the "Lao Tzu" seeks to get us out of our ordinary minds and into a vaster, broader, more freewheeling and open-minded, more spontaneous grasp of things. And remember the Tao Te Ching is a poem and employs poetic devices to overcome the linear nature of prose. Therefore you should as a reader always consider that the denotative words you are reading may have multiple meanings and they may be being used symbolically. The famous "ten thousand things" can be much more than 10,000 or even less. They are "many." And the Way can be a path, a road or a way of life or something mysterious beyond all comprehension, or simply a wise rule of thumb. It can (and is) all of these and more.So to really appreciate "Lao Tzu" takes a bit of time. So take your time. Savor it. Come back to it. Read other translations. Read the commentaries. You will be enlightened.--Dennis Littrell, author of "Yoga: Sacred and Profane (Beyond Hatha Yoga)"

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*Product available on Desertcart Ecuador*
*Store origin: EC*
*Last updated: 2026-01-23*