Overview

In this new translation, a world-renowned scholar brings out the metaphysical, moral, and poetic power of Laozi's classical Chinese text David Bentley Hart offers a luminously beautiful new translation of the Tao Te Ching (or Daodejing), one of the ancient world's most mysterious works. Drawing on his extensive study of philosophy, religion, and literature across traditions, Hart, with the help of Patrick Robert Hart, presents Laozi's timeless work and its paradoxical wisdom with clarity, power, and grace. Mesmerized by the Tao Te Ching's condensed and elliptical nature, and moved by its generosity and extravagance, Hart embarked on his study of the text forty years ago. This ancient Chinese text, he shows us, abounds in paradox. It tells us that true strength lies in yielding, true wealth in possessing nothing, true greatness in humility, true wisdom in apparent folly, true glory in hiddenness, and the highest victory in an indifference to struggles for dominance. The Tao Te Ching offers a universal vision of reality, of a world charged with spiritual forces, and of the being of things as always full because it is always empty of itself. Precise and clear, this translation honors the text's mystical depth and poetic subtlety while remaining faithful to its enigmatic utterances, which allows the text to resonate anew with readers today.

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9780300284997

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Reviews

A Most Anticipated Book of Spring 2026, Englewood Review of Books

“This is not the Daodejing of pragmatist statecraft manuals or countercultural mysticism; it is the Daodejing as an Axial Age mystical text, readable alongside the Upanishads and the sermons of Rhineland mysticism, and Hart makes this case with sustained philosophical confidence before the first verse.”—Jordan Silversmith, Asymptote

Author Information

David Bentley Hart is a philosopher, scholar of religion, writer, and cultural commentator. His books include All Things Are Full of Gods; The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss; and Roland in Moonlight. He is a collaborative researcher at the University of Notre Dame. Patrick Robert Hart is a writer and independent scholar.

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