Lao Tzu

Not much is known about the legendary Lao Tzu, to whom authorship of the Tao Te Ching is popularly attributed. Some scholars believe the author was an elder contemporary of Confucius.

Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin is the winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Gandalf, Kafka, and National Book Awards. She is the author of many short stories and more than fifteen novels, including The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed. She is also an honored author of children's books, poetry, and criticism.

"Each day I open this book at random and receive a contemplative gift. These words are akin to water in the desert." —Terry Tempest Williams, author of Refuge

"Among the many translations of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, Ursula K. Le Guin’s new version is a special treasure—a delight. There is something startlingly fresh and creatively alive here, brought forth by Ms. Le Guin’s intuitive and personal ingenuity." —Chuangliang Al Huang, founder of the Living Tao Foundation and coauthor (with Alan Watts) of Tao: The Watercourse Way

"A student of the Tao for several decades, Le Guin has created an English text that will speak to modern readers in a fresh and lively way, while conveying the humor, insight, and beauty of the original." —Lion’s Roar magazine

"The type of work which the great Polish poet and Nobel laureate Wisława Szymborska meant when she spoke of ‘that rare miracle when a translation stops being a translation and becomes . . . a second original.’ . . . The whole of Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching is well worth savoring—as much for the ancient substance as for Le Guin’s stylistic splendor." —Maria Popova, Brain Pickings