Tao Te Ching

The Tao Te Ching — Dàodéjīng, “the Classic of the Way and its Power” — is a book of about five thousand Chinese characters in eighty-one short chapters. You can read it in an hour. Chinese and Western readers have been unable to finish thinking about it for two and a half thousand years. It has been read as metaphysics, as mysticism, as a manual for kings, as a guide to long life, as a strategy for survival in a violent age, as poetry, and as the founding scripture of a religion. After the Bible, it is among the most translated books in the world.

This page is a companion for reading it: who wrote it (or didn’t), how it is built, its central ideas, and then every one of its eighty-one chapters, each with its key line (in my own rendering from the Chinese) and a short commentary — so you can find the line you remember, see where it sits, and follow its thought.

Who wrote it?

Tradition credits Laozi (“the Old Master”), said to have been an archivist at the Zhou court in the sixth century BCE and an older contemporary of Confucius. The legend, told in Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian (c. 100 BCE), has him leaving China for the west on a water buffalo; at the Hangu Pass, the gatekeeper Yin Xi begs him to leave his wisdom behind, and he writes the book in two parts and disappears. Sima Qian himself admits that no one knows whether this is true.

Modern scholarship sees the text as an anthology of sayings, polished over generations and reaching roughly its present form by the third century BCE. Three discoveries changed the field:

Find	Date of text	What it showed
Mawangdui silk manuscripts (excavated 1973)	c. 200 BCE	The two halves in reverse order — Dé before Dào; many variant readings
Guodian bamboo slips (excavated 1993)	c. 300 BCE	About a third of the text, in different order and without some anti-Confucian lines — an earlier, evolving book
Peking University bamboo text (acquired 2009)	Western Han	A nearly complete early version

So the book we read — the “received text”, edited with the commentary of Wang Bi (226–249 CE), a brilliant young philosopher who died at twenty-three — is the product of centuries.

How it is built

The 81 chapters fall into two parts:

• Dào jīng (chapters 1–37), the “Classic of the Way”, opening with “The Dao that can be spoken…”.
• Dé jīng (chapters 38–81), the “Classic of Power/Virtue”, opening with “The highest virtue does not act virtuous…”.

The chapters are short — some only a few lines — written in rhythmic, often rhymed, compressed classical Chinese, full of parallelism (“Being and non-being produce each other; difficult and easy complete each other…”), paradox (“Bend and you will be whole”), and recurring images: water, the valley, the infant, the uncarved block, the female, the empty vessel. Classical Chinese has no tenses or plurals and few connectives, so every line can be read several ways. That is why translations differ so wildly — and why it rewards reading in more than one.

The central ideas

Dào — the Way

The dào (道) is literally a road, a path, a method — and also “to say”. For the Confucians it meant the right way of conduct. The Tao Te Ching uses it for the source and pattern of everything: nameless, formless, prior to heaven and earth, inexhaustible, giving birth to all things and claiming none. It cannot be grasped as an object: to name it is already to miss it.

Dé — power, virtue

Dé (德) is the power or efficacy a thing has when it is in accord with the Way — not moral virtue earned by effort, but the natural potency of the uncontrived. A tree has the dé of growing; a sage has the dé that makes others change without being told.

Wúwéi — effortless action

Wúwéi (無為), “non-action”, is the book’s central practice: acting without forcing, striving, or imposing — like water finding its way. It is not passivity: “the Dao does nothing, yet nothing is left undone”.

Zìrán — naturalness

Zìrán (自然), “self-so”, “of itself so” — the spontaneous way things are when left to themselves. “The Dao follows what is so of itself” (ch. 25).

Pǔ — the uncarved block

The image of the uncut wood (pǔ 樸) stands for simplicity, potential, the state before shaping and naming — to which the sage returns.

Reversal and the soft

“Reversal is the movement of the Dao; weakness is the function of the Dao” (ch. 40). Opposites generate each other; extremes turn into their contraries; the soft overcomes the hard; the low becomes high. This is the root of the yin–yang way of thinking.

Against cleverness and moralizing

The book is suspicious of learning, ritual, cleverness and moral exhortation — symptoms of a lost naturalness. “When the great Way is abandoned, there are benevolence and righteousness” (ch. 18).

Government by lightness

Much of the book is advice to rulers: govern little, keep desires few, avoid war, let the people be. “Governing a large state is like cooking a small fish” (ch. 60).

The eighty-one chapters

Each entry gives the chapter’s key line in my own rendering, then a note. Numbers follow the received text.

The Way (chapters 1–37)

1. The nameless. “The Way that can be told is not the constant Way; the name that can be named is not the constant name.” The book opens by undercutting itself: whatever it says about the Dao will miss it. The nameless is the origin of heaven and earth; the named is the mother of all things. Free of desire you see the mystery; with desire you see only its edges. “Mystery upon mystery — the gate of all wonders.”

2. Opposites. “When everyone knows beauty as beauty, ugliness is already there; when everyone knows good as good, the not-good is already there.” This is the line you remember. Being and non-being produce each other; difficult and easy complete each other; long and short shape each other; high and low lean on each other. So the sage “manages affairs without action, teaches without words”, and does not claim credit — and because he does not claim it, it does not leave him.

3. Not exalting the worthy. “Do not honour the talented, and the people will not compete; do not prize rare goods, and the people will not steal.” The sage’s government: empty their minds, fill their bellies, weaken their ambitions, strengthen their bones. One of the passages that critics read as anti-intellectual; defenders read it as a critique of a status-competition society.

4. The empty vessel. “The Way is empty, yet using it, it is never filled. Deep — like the ancestor of the ten thousand things.” It blunts sharpness, unties tangles, softens glare, mingles with dust. “I do not know whose child it is; it seems to precede the Lord.”

5. Straw dogs. “Heaven and earth are not humane; they treat the ten thousand things as straw dogs.” Straw dogs were ritual offerings, honoured during the ceremony and thrown away after. Nature is impartial, not cruel; and the sage too does not play favourites. The space between heaven and earth is like a bellows — empty yet inexhaustible.

6. The valley spirit. “The valley spirit never dies; it is called the mysterious female.” The gateway of the mysterious female is the root of heaven and earth — faint, barely there, yet use it and it never runs out. The feminine and the receptive as the source of creation.

7. Selflessness. “Heaven is lasting and earth endures because they do not live for themselves.” The sage puts himself last and finds himself first; disregards himself and is preserved. “Is it not because he has no self that he can fulfil himself?”

8. Like water. “The highest good is like water. Water benefits the ten thousand things and does not contend; it settles where people disdain to be — and so it is close to the Way.” The most loved chapter. In dwelling, value the ground; in heart, depth; in giving, kindness; in speech, trust; in action, timing. “Because it does not contend, it is beyond reproach.”

9. Knowing when to stop. “Fill a cup to the brim and it is better not to have filled it. Hone a blade to the sharpest and it will not keep its edge.” Gold and jade filling the hall cannot be guarded. “Withdraw when the work is done — that is the way of heaven.”

10. Can you…? “Holding the soul and embracing the One — can you keep them from separating? Concentrating your breath to the utmost softness — can you be like an infant?” A series of questions about meditation, government and loving the people without cleverness. “To give birth and nurture, to produce without possessing, to act without claiming, to lead without dominating — this is called mysterious virtue.”

11. The use of emptiness. “Thirty spokes share one hub; it is the empty space that makes the cart useful.” Clay makes a vessel; the emptiness inside makes it useful. Doors and windows make a room; the empty space makes it usable. “What is there gives benefit; what is not there gives use.” Architects, designers and musicians have loved this chapter for centuries.

12. The five colours. “The five colours blind the eye; the five tones deafen the ear; the five flavours numb the palate; racing and hunting madden the mind.” The sage cares for the belly, not the eyes — for inner need, not stimulation. A remarkable critique of overstimulation, two millennia before advertising.

13. Favour and disgrace. “Favour and disgrace are both alarming; value great trouble as you value your own body.” Why do I have great trouble? Because I have a body (a self). Only one who values the world as his own body can be trusted with it.

14. The invisible. “Look — it cannot be seen: it is called the invisible. Listen — it cannot be heard: the inaudible. Grasp — it cannot be held: the intangible.” The Dao has no form; follow it and you will not see its back, meet it and you will not see its head. “Holding on to the ancient Way, you master the present.”

15. The ancient masters. “The ancient masters were subtle, mysterious, profound — too deep to be known.” Since they cannot be known, the chapter can only describe them by images: cautious as one crossing a winter stream, watchful as one fearing neighbours, reserved as a guest, yielding as melting ice, simple as uncarved wood, open as a valley, murky as muddy water. “Who can make muddy water clear? Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear.”

16. Returning to the root. “Reach the utmost emptiness; hold fast to stillness. The ten thousand things rise together, and I watch their return.” Everything flourishes and returns to its root; returning to the root is stillness; stillness is returning to destiny; knowing the constant is clarity. A chapter central to Daoist meditation.

17. The best rulers. “Of the best rulers, the people know only that they exist; next, they love and praise them; next, they fear them; next, they despise them.” When the work is done, the people all say: “We did it ourselves.” Perhaps the most quoted chapter on leadership.

18. When the Way declines. “When the great Way is abandoned, there are benevolence and righteousness. When cleverness appears, there is great hypocrisy.” When families are in discord, filial piety is praised; when the state is in chaos, loyal ministers appear. Virtues are named only when they are missing — an anti-Confucian barb.

19. Abandon sageliness. “Abandon sageliness, discard cleverness, and the people will benefit a hundredfold.” Show plainness, embrace the uncarved block, lessen selfishness, have few desires. (The Guodian version is milder — it attacks cleverness and profit, not benevolence — suggesting the anti-Confucian edge was sharpened later.)

20. I alone am different. “Give up learning and there will be no worry.” The most personal chapter: everyone is cheerful as at a great feast, “I alone am still, like an infant who has not yet smiled… I alone seem to have lost everything… I alone am different from others, valuing being nourished by the Mother.” The loneliness of the one who follows the Way.

21. The form of the Way. “The Way as a thing — elusive, evasive. Evasive, elusive — yet within it there is image; within it there is substance; within it there is essence.” The Dao is shadowy but real, and its essence is genuine.

22. Bend and be whole. “Bend and you will be whole; curl and you will be straight; empty and you will be full; wear out and you will be new.” The sage does not show himself and so is seen; does not boast and so has merit; does not contend, and so no one can contend with him.

23. Few words. “To speak little is natural. A whirlwind does not last a whole morning; a sudden rain does not last a whole day.” If heaven and earth cannot make violence last, how much less can people.

24. On tiptoe. “One who stands on tiptoe does not stand firm; one who takes long strides does not walk far.” Self-display, self-assertion and boasting are “leftover food and a superfluous growth”.

25. The great. “There was something formless yet complete, born before heaven and earth — silent, empty, standing alone, unchanging, moving everywhere, inexhaustible. It may be the mother of the world. I do not know its name; I call it ‘Way’.” Humans follow earth, earth follows heaven, heaven follows the Way, and the Way follows what is so of itself (zìrán).

26. Heaviness and stillness. “Heaviness is the root of lightness; stillness is the master of agitation.” A ruler who acts lightly loses his roots.

27. Skill without traces. “A good traveller leaves no tracks; a good speaker no flaws.” The sage is good at saving people, so no one is abandoned. “The good person is the teacher of the not-good; the not-good is the material of the good.”

28. Know the male, keep to the female. “Know the masculine, keep to the feminine, and be the ravine of the world.” Know the white, keep to the black; know glory, keep to humility — and return to the infant, to the uncarved block. “The great carving cuts nothing away.”

29. The sacred vessel. “The world is a sacred vessel; it cannot be acted upon. Whoever acts on it ruins it; whoever grasps it loses it.” Things lead and follow, breathe hard and soft, grow strong and weak. The sage avoids excess, extravagance and extremes.

30. Against force. “One who assists a ruler with the Way does not dominate the world by force — such things tend to rebound. Where armies have camped, thorns and brambles grow.” Achieve your purpose and stop; do not glory in it.

31. Weapons are ill-omened. “Fine weapons are instruments of ill omen… Even in victory there is no beauty; to call it beautiful is to delight in killing.” After a victory, one should observe the rites of mourning. One of the most powerful anti-war passages in ancient literature.

32. The uncarved block. “The Way is constantly nameless. Though the uncarved block is small, no one in the world can make it a servant.” When names begin, know when to stop. The Way in the world is like rivers and streams flowing into the sea.

33. Knowing yourself. “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is enlightenment. Mastering others takes force; mastering yourself is true strength.” Knowing you have enough is wealth. “To die but not perish — that is longevity.”

34. The great Way flows everywhere. “The great Way flows everywhere, to the left and to the right.” It accomplishes its work and claims no name; it clothes and feeds all things and does not act as master. Because it never claims greatness, it achieves greatness.

35. The great image. “Hold to the great image, and the world will come to you.” Music and good food make passers-by stop; but the Way, spoken of, is bland and flavourless — look, and you cannot see it; use it, and it is never exhausted.

36. To shrink, first stretch. “What is to be shrunk must first be stretched; what is to be weakened must first be strengthened.” The soft and weak overcome the hard and strong. “Fish should not leave the deep; a state’s sharp weapons should not be shown.” Read by some as a statesman’s strategy of feints.

37. Non-action. “The Way never acts, yet nothing is left undone.” If rulers could keep to it, all things would transform of themselves. The end of the first part.

Power (chapters 38–81)

38. The highest virtue. “The highest virtue does not act virtuous, and therefore has virtue; the lowest virtue never loses its virtuousness, and therefore has no virtue.” The descent: when the Way is lost, there is virtue; when virtue is lost, benevolence; when benevolence is lost, righteousness; when righteousness is lost, ritual — “the thinning of loyalty and trust, the beginning of disorder”. A direct challenge to Confucian ethics.

39. The One. “Heaven attains the One and becomes clear; earth attains the One and becomes stable…” Nobility has humility as its root; the high has the low as its foundation. “Do not wish to glitter like jade; be rugged like stone.”

40. Reversal. “Reversal is the movement of the Way; weakness is its function. The ten thousand things are born of being; being is born of non-being.” Four lines that contain the whole book.

41. The great scholar hears the Way. “When the superior person hears of the Way, he practises it diligently; when the average person hears of it, he half believes; when the inferior person hears of it, he laughs out loud — if he did not laugh, it would not be the Way.” Then a list of paradoxes: the bright Way seems dark, great virtue seems empty, “the great square has no corners… the great sound is hardly heard, the great image has no form”.

42. One, Two, Three. “The Way gives birth to One; One gives birth to Two; Two gives birth to Three; Three gives birth to the ten thousand things.” The ten thousand things carry yin on their backs and embrace yang; their harmony comes from blending the breaths. “The violent do not die a natural death.”

43. The softest. “The softest thing in the world rides roughshod over the hardest.” Non-being enters where there is no space. The teaching without words, the benefit of non-action — few in the world attain them.

44. Fame or self? “Fame or your self — which is dearer? Your self or your possessions — which is more? Gain or loss — which hurts more?” Know contentment and you will not be disgraced; know when to stop and you will not be endangered.

45. Great perfection seems flawed. “Great perfection seems flawed, yet its use is never exhausted; great fullness seems empty.” Great straightness seems crooked, great skill seems clumsy, great eloquence seems stammering. “Clarity and stillness are the norm of the world.”

46. Enough. “When the world has the Way, galloping horses are retired to fertilize the fields; when the world lacks the Way, warhorses are bred on the frontier.” There is no greater calamity than not knowing contentment. “One who knows that enough is enough always has enough.”

47. Without leaving the door. “Without going out the door, you can know the world; without looking out the window, you can see the Way of heaven. The farther you go, the less you know.” The sage knows without travelling, names without seeing, accomplishes without acting.

48. Learning and the Way. “In pursuing learning, one gains every day; in pursuing the Way, one loses every day.” Lose and lose again, until you arrive at non-action — and by non-action nothing is left undone.

49. The sage has no fixed heart. “The sage has no fixed mind of his own; he makes the people’s mind his mind.” To the good I am good; to the not-good I am also good — so goodness is attained. To the trustworthy I am trustworthy; to the untrustworthy I am also trustworthy.

50. Going out to life, entering death. “Coming out is life, going in is death.” One who is good at preserving life meets no tigers or rhinoceroses on the road and is not wounded in battle — “because he has no place of death”.

51. The Way gives birth. “The Way gives them birth, virtue rears them, things give them form, circumstances complete them.” The Way gives life without possessing, acts without claiming, leads without dominating — “mysterious virtue”.

52. The mother. “The world has a beginning, which is the mother of the world. Knowing the mother, you know her children.” Block the openings, shut the doors, and life will not be toilsome. “Seeing the small is called clarity; keeping to the soft is called strength.”

53. The great Way is easy. “The great Way is very smooth, yet people love byways.” The court is splendid, the fields are weeds, the granaries empty — and the rulers wear fine silks and carry sharp swords: “This is called robbery and extravagance. It is not the Way!”

54. Firmly planted. “What is well planted cannot be uprooted; what is well embraced cannot slip away.” Cultivate virtue in yourself, your family, your village, your state, the world — and judge each by itself.

55. The infant. “One who holds virtue in fullness is like an infant. Wasps and snakes do not sting it; fierce beasts do not seize it.” Its bones are soft, its sinews weak, yet its grip is firm; it can cry all day without growing hoarse. “Things grow strong and then grow old; this is called contrary to the Way.”

56. Those who know. “Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know.” Block the openings, blunt the sharpness, untie the tangles, soften the glare, merge with the dust — “this is called mysterious sameness”. One of the most quoted lines in Chinese.

57. Govern by the straightforward. “The more prohibitions in the world, the poorer the people; the more sharp weapons, the more disorder; the more clever skills, the more strange things appear; the more laws are posted, the more thieves and robbers.” So the sage says: I do nothing, and the people transform themselves.

58. Fortune and misfortune. “Misfortune — fortune leans on it. Fortune — misfortune hides in it. Who knows where it ends?” Compare the famous Chinese parable of the old man at the frontier who lost his horse: “Who knows if it’s bad luck?”

59. Frugality. “In governing people and serving heaven, nothing is better than frugality.” Frugality means early preparation; it is the way of “deep roots and a firm stem, long life and lasting vision”.

60. The small fish. “Governing a large state is like cooking a small fish.” Do not keep stirring it, or it will fall apart. When the world is governed by the Way, even spirits lose their power to harm.

61. The great state is low. “A great state is like low-lying land — the place where the world’s streams meet, the female of the world.” The female overcomes the male by stillness, by lying low. Great and small states should each take the lower position.

62. The Way is the treasure. “The Way is the shelter of the ten thousand things — the treasure of the good, the refuge of the not-good.” Better than presenting jade discs and teams of horses to the emperor is to sit still and offer the Way.

63. Act without acting. “Act without acting; work without working; taste the tasteless. Treat the small as great, the few as many; repay injury with virtue.” Handle the difficult while it is easy, the great while it is small. (Confucius, asked about “repaying injury with virtue”, replied: then with what would you repay virtue? Repay injury with justice — Analects 14.34.)

64. A journey of a thousand miles. “A tree you can barely get your arms around grows from a tiny shoot; a tower of nine storeys rises from a heap of earth; a journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet.” Deal with things before they arise. People often fail on the verge of success — “be as careful at the end as at the beginning, and you will not fail”.

65. Not making the people clever. “The ancients who were good at the Way did not use it to enlighten the people but to keep them simple.” One of the most debated chapters — read as obscurantism by critics, as a defence of plain-heartedness against manipulation by others.

66. Rivers and seas. “Rivers and seas can be kings of the hundred valleys because they are good at lying low.” The sage leads by staying behind; the people do not feel his weight, and the world never tires of him.

67. Three treasures. “I have three treasures which I hold and keep: the first is compassion, the second is frugality, the third is not daring to be first in the world.” Compassion makes one brave; frugality makes one generous; humility makes one a leader. “Heaven protects with compassion.”

68. The good warrior. “The best warrior is not warlike; the best fighter is not angry; the best victor does not engage; the best employer of others puts himself below them.” “The virtue of not contending.”

69. The strategist. “I dare not be the host but rather the guest; I dare not advance an inch but rather retreat a foot.” There is no greater disaster than underestimating the enemy. When armies meet, the one who grieves will win.

70. My words are easy. “My words are very easy to understand and very easy to practise, yet no one in the world can understand or practise them.” The sage wears coarse cloth and carries jade in his bosom.

71. Knowing not-knowing. “To know that you do not know is highest; not to know but think you know is sickness.” The sage is not sick, because he recognizes sickness as sickness. Compare Socrates — and Confucius, Analects 2.17.

72. When the people do not fear. “When the people no longer fear your power, a greater power will come.” Do not crowd their dwellings or oppress their livelihood.

73. Heaven’s net. “Heaven’s net is vast and wide; its meshes are wide, yet nothing slips through.” One brave in daring is killed; one brave in not-daring lives.

74. The executioner. “If the people do not fear death, why threaten them with death?” To kill in place of the master executioner (heaven) is like cutting wood in place of the master carpenter — rarely does one escape cutting one’s own hand. A remarkable argument against capital punishment.

75. Why the people starve. “The people starve because their rulers eat too much in taxes.” They are hard to govern because their rulers meddle; they take death lightly because their rulers seek life too greedily.

76. Soft and supple. “People are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. So the hard and stiff are companions of death; the soft and supple are companions of life.” An army that is unbending will not win; a tree that is unbending will break.

77. The bow. “The Way of heaven is like stretching a bow: it pulls down the high and lifts up the low.” Heaven takes from what has too much and gives to what has too little; the human way takes from those who have too little to give to those who have too much.

78. Nothing softer than water. “Nothing in the world is softer and weaker than water, yet nothing can surpass it in attacking the hard and strong.” Everyone knows the weak overcomes the strong, yet no one can practise it. “True words seem paradoxical.”

79. Settling a great grievance. “After a great grievance is settled, some resentment always remains.” So the sage holds the left half of the tally (the creditor’s half) but makes no demands. “The Way of heaven has no favourites; it is always with the good.”

80. The small state. “Let there be a small state with few people.” Let them have tools but not use them, boats and carriages but no reason to ride them, weapons but no occasion to display them; let them return to knotted cords, enjoy their food and clothing, and grow old and die without ever visiting the neighbouring state, though they can hear its dogs bark and roosters crow. The book’s utopia — the opposite of empire.

81. True words. “True words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not true. The good do not argue; those who argue are not good. Those who know are not learned; the learned do not know.” The sage does not hoard; the more he does for others, the more he has; the more he gives, the more he gains. “The Way of heaven benefits and does not harm; the Way of the sage acts and does not contend.” The last line of the book.

Ten lines to carry

1. “The Way that can be told is not the constant Way.” (1)
2. “When everyone knows beauty as beauty, ugliness is already there.” (2)
3. “The highest good is like water.” (8)
4. “It is the empty space that makes it useful.” (11)
5. “When the work is done, the people say, ‘We did it ourselves.’” (17)
6. “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is enlightenment.” (33)
7. “Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know.” (56)
8. “Governing a large state is like cooking a small fish.” (60)
9. “A journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet.” (64)
10. “True words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not true.” (81)

How it has been read

• As metaphysics — the Dao as the ground of being; compared with Heraclitus‘s logos and with Brahman (see Ātman is Brahman).
• As politics — Han dynasty “Huang-Lao” thought made it a manual for light-handed government; the early Han emperors practised it.
• As religion — from the second century CE, Laozi was deified and the text became scripture for the Daoist church; commentaries like the Xiang’er read it as a guide to immortality.
• As Buddhism’s ally — Chinese translators used its vocabulary for Buddhist ideas; Chan (Zen) absorbed its spirit.
• As Western wisdom literature — Tolstoy translated parts; Heidegger tried to translate it with a Chinese scholar in 1946; Brecht wrote a poem about the gatekeeper (“the soft water in motion conquers in the end the mighty stone”); Ursula K. Le Guin’s version made it a classic for a new generation.

Translations compared

Translator	Character
D. C. Lau (Penguin, 1963)	Scholarly, sober, reliable
Arthur Waley, The Way and Its Power (1934)	Elegant, with a long introduction
Stephen Mitchell (1988)	Beautiful, very free — more Mitchell than Laozi
Ursula K. Le Guin (1997)	Poetic interpretation, deeply felt
Roger Ames & David Hall (2003)	Philosophical, process-oriented
Robert Henricks (2000)	Translates the Guodian manuscripts

Read two side by side, and you will understand how much is decided by the translator.

See also Laozi, Zhuangzi and Daoism.