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Tao Te Ching

Lao-tzu; Stephen Mitchell

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Founder connections

  • Ed CatmullConfirmed wisdom reading in a grouped answer
    In the Ferriss interview Catmull says broad wisdom reading was informative, then explicitly affirms the Torah and Tao Te Ching when Ferriss names them as examples. The group confirmation supports this work-level reading label, not a separate recommendation or full completion. His version is unknown. The registry uses Mitchell’s interpretive English adaptation and does not claim it was Catmull’s copy.
    Source

Summary

Stephen Mitchell’s English version presents the Tao Te Ching in eighty-one short chapters. The text considers action, restraint, government and life in relation to the Tao. Mitchell’s foreword explains that he has also adapted and interpreted the work, so this edition is an English rendering with its own choices, rather than a claim to word-for-word translation.

  • SourceTao Te Ching — source description · Book description; Foreword, paragraph on paraphrasing, expanding and interpreting
  • SourceTao Te Ching — original adapter foreword and description, refreshed · Description: eighty-one chapters, wisdom in action, government and conduct; Foreword explains acting without forcing and the English adaptation’s interpretive method.

Why read it Our view

For founders reflecting on conduct, compare the text’s accounts of restraint, action and government. Read Mitchell’s foreword alongside the chapters to understand how this English adaptation interprets the older work.