Tao Te Ching

Why it’s on the list: The foundational text of Taoism, traditionally attributed to Laozi — eighty-one short chapters on the Tao, on governing by not-forcing, and on the strength of yielding. A short primer on non-coercive leadership that keeps surfacing in the strategy and founder-advice canon.

Where I heard about it

• Robert Haisfield — put forward in Thread of Classics, a crowd-sourced Twitter thread pairing classic texts with the people recommending them (his tweet), May 2020.

About this edition

One of the most-translated books in the world, and the shortest of the classics on that thread. The page count reflects the Stephen Mitchell translation; editions and translations vary widely.

Connections

• Thread of Classics — the reading list it came from

Captured from Roam

• Heaven and Earth last forever. Why do heaven and Earth last forever? They are unborn, So ever living.