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    The Tao Te Ching is a Chinese Classic. More than that, it has become a worldwide classic, second only to the Bible on the list of the world’s most translated texts. Unlike the Bible, however, the Tao Te Ching is a very brief book, containing only about five thousand characters, or words. The Bible is broad in scope. It contains the official religio-political history of the Ancient nation of Israel, as well as social commentary, poetry, proverbial sayings, and predictions of the future. That’s just the Jewish portion! Christians added stories about the life of Jesus of Nazareth, extending to him the title of Christ or Messiah (which simply means “King of Israel”), narratives about the early adventures of the church, documents to particular churches dealing with specific and general problems faced by those early communities, and predictions of the future. The Tao Te Ching has only one topic and concern throughout its eighty-one terse chapters: effective leadership style.

 

     The Tao Te Ching often leaves Western readers scratching their collective heads. This confusion may simply be due to the text’s non-Western presumptions, making it difficult for the reader to “get where it’s coming from.” Similarly, the confusion may be the result of using the text incorrectly. The purpose of the text is to teach how to govern effectively. It was not intended to be a “self-help” guide or to straighten out peoples’ lives. There may be much in the pages of the Tao Te Ching that may be applicable to the individual in some general context, but it is most useful if it is used as it was originally intended–as a guide to being an effective leader. The goal of the text is to inform people how to be successful in governance, politics, business, any situation that requires the necessity of leaders.

 

    Another likely reason for the confusion that is often generated by the Tao Te Ching may simply be its brevity. The author (or authors as the case may be) had no love for over-analysis or detailed description. The general rule of thumb employed in the Tao Te Ching’s writing was apparently “the less said, the better.” This quality of saying something with as few words as possible creates a general vagueness that is often difficult to overcome. It’s this vagueness, more often than not, that is the source of confusion on the part of the contemporary reader.

 

    The intention of this translation is to create a less-vague version of the Tao Te Ching. The result is that this translation is not intended to be a word for word or literal representation of the ancient text. It is more of a thought for thought translation, also known as a dynamic equivalent. This translation is also not intended to serve as the definitive translation of the Chinese classic. Rather, it is meant to be used as a guide for personal reflection on the general process of leadership as well as developing leadership strategies. It is believed that this version is useful for those wishing to utilize a reader friendly version of the Tao Te Ching in their study of Taoism.